JPMorgan’s active mobile customers reach 59 million

For banking giant JPMorgan, the fourth quarter showed continued momentum in credit and debit spending, and double-digit gains in the number of active mobile customers, measured as year-over-year growth.

Debit and credit sales volume was $376.2 billion in the most recent period, up 26% year-over-year.

Credit card sales volume increased 29% from a year ago, recently reaching $254.1 billion.

CEO Jamie Dimon said in the earnings announcement that the U.S. economy continues to do well despite continued pandemic pressure and supply chain bottlenecks. Dimon said in the statement that “Credit continues to be healthy with exceptionally low net charges, and we remain bullish on U.S. economic growth.”

Explore imputations like detailed in income supplements, total net charges in the last quarter were $515 million, compared to $817 million a year ago; the total provision for loan losses fell to $12.3 billion in the fourth quarter from more than $22 billion a year ago.

In a data point that signals consumer health, the company said the card wallet showed a reserve release of $1.4 billion, compared to no release taken in the fourth quarter of 2020.

In headline terms, the bank posted a profit of $3.33, topping the street at $3.01. As seen in recent quarters, for JPMorgan (and its peers), a release of reserves has helped bottom line earnings, by around 46 cents per share. Total company revenue, on a consolidated basis, was $30.3 billion, up 1% year-over-year.

During the conference call with analysts, Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said there would be “headwinds” from higher spending, in part due to rising labor costs and inflation.

The digital shift

Regarding the big digital shift: the company noted that its branch count at the end of last quarter was 4,790, down 2% from Q4 2020. The total number of digital customers assets during the quarter was 58.9 million, up 6%. % year after year and 2% sequentially. Active mobile customers exceeded those rates, rising to 45.5 million, up 11% from the fourth quarter of last year.

On the balance sheet, as detailed in the presentation of the results, average loans, excluding those issued under the PPP, were $1.1 trillion, up 8% year-on-year. Average card lending in the quarter was $148.5 billion, up from $141.2 billion a year ago.

Management noted on the conference call with analysts that technology spending exceeded $12 billion on an annual basis, half of which was related to modernization and regulatory efforts. The focus will continue to be on data, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), according to the call comments. The other half of capital expenditure is intended, as the CFO said, “to drive innovation in our business and with our customer-facing products, we believe it is essential to identify and solve customer problems and improve the user experience”. He pointed to digital offerings such as Chase My Home (for mortgages), Onyx, and real-time payment initiatives.