Making bank
JPMorgan Chase’s annual profits surged to a record $49.6 billion in 2023, as the bank continues to extend the ever-widening lead it enjoys over its American industry rivals.
The giant, formed by an amalgam of mergers and acquisitions through the years with foundational roots stretching back as far as 1799, recorded the mind-boggling bottom-line figure despite a 3% dip in quarterly sales — a clear reflection of the very good rest-of-the-year that JPM had, thanks to high interest rates and its successful acquisition of the failed First Republic earlier in the year.
Rather than spending too long celebrating the record-breaking results, CEO Jamie Dimon was keen to use the earnings release to warn investors that increased spending “may lead inflation to be stickier and rates to be higher than markets expect.”
