A summary of banks' financial results for the second quarter as they relate to wealth management and private banking.

As the third-quarter financial reporting season winds down, it is useful to be reminded of the second-quarter/half-year results season that happened earlier in the year. The results focus on the largest institutions which provide wealth management. Not all banks report on a calendar year schedule, and not all the institutions are alike, so the results from standalone institutions should be viewed differently from wealth management results embedded within a larger group. These results may be subsequently revised. Not all the banks reported on the same day. We hope readers find it useful to see these figures collated in one article and can make a few comparisons. 

Non-dollar reporting amounts have not been converted into dollars for this summary, because the exchange rates that apply will have subsequently changed.

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JP Morgan 
Q2 2024 net income rose to $1.26 billion from $1.23 billion in the previous quarter for the asset and wealth management arm. Net revenue rose to $2.252 billion from $4.943 billion. AuM rose 15 per cent to $3.7 trillion; total client assets rose 18 per cent to $5.4 trillion. 

Bank of America
The wealth and investment management arm reported a rise in its second-quarter net income to $1.026 billion from $978 million a year before. Total revenue rose to $5.574 billion from $5.242 billion. Noninterest expenses rose to $4.199 billion from $3.925 billion. Revenue growth was driven by a 14 per cent increase in asset management fees, helped by higher market levels and asset inflows, partly outweighed by a fall in net interest income. BoA had record client balances of over $4 trillion, up 10 per cent. 

In the second quarter, BoA’s wealth and investment business logged $11 billion in AuM inflows; average deposits, at $288 billion, fell by 3 per cent. On the private banking side, it reported record client balances of $640 billion, and in assets under management, balances of $385 billion.

Citigroup
It reported net income for the second quarter 2024 of $3.2 billion, on revenues of $20.1 billion, versus net income of $2.9 billion, on revenues of $19.4 billion for the same period a year earlier. The rise in net income was mainly caused by higher revenues and a fall in costs, partly offset by a higher cost of credit. At the private banking side, revenues rose 1 per cent year-on-year to $611 million in Q2. Across the whole of the wealth side of the bank, it had $540 billion in client investment assets, up 15 per cent on a year ago. Total wealth revenues rose 2 per cent to $1.8 billion.

Wells Fargo 
Second-quarter 2024 net income slipped 1 per cent year-on-year to $484 million, affected by a 10 per cent fall in net interest income, higher noninterest costs and provision for credit losses. The segment of the bank, which includes private banking, said noninterest income rose 12 per cent to $2.952 billion; net interest income fell to $906 million; noninterest expenses rose 7 per cent to $3.193 billion. Total client assets rose 10 per cent on a year ago to $2.2 trillion.

BNY 
The market and wealth services business segment logged total pre-tax income of $704 million, up 8 per cent; total revenue rose 6 per cent to $1.535 billion in the quarter. At the investment and wealth management business division, total revenue rose 1 per cent year-on-year to $821 million. Wealth management client assets stood at $308 billion, up 8 per cent on a year before.

Morgan Stanley 
The firm reported net revenues for the second quarter ended 30 June 2024 – reaching $15.0 billion compared with $13.5 billion a year ago. Net income applicable to Morgan Stanley was $3.1 billion, or $1.82 per diluted share, compared with net income of $2.2 billion, it said in a statement. 

Wealth management delivered a pre-tax margin of 26.8 per cent for the quarter. Net revenues were $6.8 billion on record asset management revenues driven by cumulative fee-based asset flows and a positive market environment. Fee-based asset flows were $26 billion for the quarter and $52 billion for the first half of the year. The wealth business added net new assets of $36 billion in the quarter and $131 billion in the first half of the year. Assets under management stood at $2.188 trillion at the end of June, rising from $1.856 trillion a year earlier.

Goldman Sachs 
The firm said net revenues in the second quarter of 2024 stood at $12.73 billion, rising 17 per cent from a year ago but down 10 per cent lower than the first quarter of 2024. The year-on-year revenue rise was the result of higher net revenues in the US firm’s global banking and markets and asset and wealth management business divisions. Net earnings for Q2 2024 stood at $3.043 billion, rising 150 per cent on a year earlier.

Asset and wealth management net revenues in Q2 were $3.88 billion, rising 27 per cent on a year ago and up 2 per cent on the preceding quarter. The revenue gain was propelled by net gains in equity investments compared with net losses in the prior year period, higher management and other fees and higher net revenues in debt investments, partially offset by lower net revenues in private banking and lending. 

The fall in private banking and lending net revenues reflected the impact of the sale of the Marcus loans portfolio in 2023 (including a gain of about $100 million related to the sale of substantially all of the remaining Marcus loans portfolio in the second quarter of 2023). Assets under supervision rose by $86 billion during the quarter to a record $2.93 trillion.

UBS
The bank  logged a pre-tax profit, on an underlying basis, of $2.06 billion for the second quarter of 2024, more than double the $891 million result achieved a year earlier. 

Within its flagship global wealth management business, underlying pre-tax profit was $871 million, versus $909 million a year before. There was a large improvement in the investment banking side, with UBS chalking up an underlying pre-tax result of $412 million, contrasting with a loss of $14 million in the second quarter of 2023. Corporate and personal banking also improved: pre-tax profit, on an underlying basis, was $710 million, from $549 million a year earlier

BNP Paribas
The wealth management business logged net asset inflows of €12.9 billion for the three months to end-June in 2024, particularly in the commercial and personal banking arms, and with high net worth clients. Wealth management revenues, at €419 million, rose by 6.1 per cent, driven by increased fees and resilience in net interest revenues. Pre-tax income at the wealth and asset management side of the business was €210 million, rising 1.4 per cent on a year ago.

Julius Baer
The bank reported a net profit, on an IFRS reporting basis, of SFr452 million for the first half of 2024, down by 15 per cent on a year earlier, reflecting a year-on-year decline in revenues. Operating income dipped 4 per cent on a year earlier. Higher recurring income and higher levels of client activity were more than offset by a rise in interest expense. Assets under management rose 11 per cent from the end of 2023 to stand at SFr474 billion, lifted by rising stock markets, a weaker Swiss franc, and net new money of SFr3.7 billion.

Société Générale
Group net income for the second quarter of 2024 was €1.113 billion, rising from €900 million a year ago. Its return on tangible equity rose to 7.4 per cent from 5.6 per cent, and the cost/income ratio narrowed to 68.4 per cent from 70.6 per cent. 

Within private banking – both French and international – assets under management hit a record of €152 billion; net asset gathering rose by 6 per cent from the start of 2024, with €2.2 billion of net inflows. Net banking income in this area stood at €377 million, down 0.9 per cent on a year ago.

ABN AMRO
The bank reported a second-quarter 2024 profit of €642 million, down by 26 per cent on a year earlier. Expenses rose 11 per cent to €1.263 billion and operating income dipped 2 per cent. During the reporting period the bank built out its northwest European wealth management and corporate banking services by the purchase in late May of Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe. ABN AMRO bought the business from China-based Fosun for €672 million.

Barclays
The private bank and wealth management business of Barclays reported a pre-tax profit in the six months to 30 June of £199 million, slipping 10 per cent year-on-year. The UK-listed business, which earlier this year started to report results for its private banking and wealth segment, said invested assets – assets under management and under supervision – stood at £119.8 billion at end-June, up from £100.8 billion a year before. Net interest income fell 1 per cent year-on-year to £362 million; net fee, commission and other income, however, rose 41 per cent to £270 million; total income rose 13 per cent to £632 million. Total operating expenses widened by 34 per cent to £436 million.

HSBC
Within the wealth and personal banking division – including HSBC’s private bank – pre-tax profit, on a constant currency basis, was $6.458 billion in H1 2024, sliding from $8.628 billion. Net operating income fell while expenses increased over the reporting period.

NatWest (Coutts)
The lender’s private banking arm – Coutts – reported an operating profit of £66 in the quarter, down from £101 million a year before; total income fell to £236 million from £271 million. Operating expenses rose to £175 million from £167 million. There were £600 million of net inflows in the latest quarter, up from £400 million. Assets under management were £34.7 billion, rising from £31.7 billion a year before.

Lloyds Banking Group 
The UK lender does not specifically break out private banking/wealth results.

Standard Chartered
Operating income: Wealth Solutions rose by 27 per cent in constant currency terms to $618 million, with “broad-based growth” across products and supported by robust leading indicators in net new sales and affluent new-to-bank clients. Wealth AuM stood at $135 billion, rising 12 per cent from the end of December 2023.

In the first six months of the year, wealth and retail banking attracted $23 billion of affluent net new money, versus the lender’s $80 billion three-year target. The bank said it was focusing on accelerating growth in international clients in our wealth hubs, with 296,000 at the end of the first half, making “good progress” towards its target of more than 375,000 by 2026. It is growing its “Affluent” client business through “up-tiering our clients across the wealth continuum, with 155,000 clients up-tiered in the first six months of the year.”

DBS
The Singapore-headquartered bank logged a net profit of S$2.8 billion for the second-quarter of 2024, rising by 4 per cent from a year ago. Total income increased 9 per cent year-on-year to S$5.48 billion. Commercial book net interest income rose from balance sheet growth and a slightly higher net interest margin, DBS said. For the first half of 2024, net profit rose by 9 per cent to a new high of S$5.76 billion, with return on equity of 18.8 per cent.

Wealth management fees rose 37 per cent year-on-year to S$518 million, driven by a shift from deposits into investments and bancassurance as well as an expansion in assets under management.

OCBC
The group’s wealth management income, comprising income from insurance, private banking, premier private client, premier banking, asset management and stockbroking, rose 14 per cent to a record S$2.54 billion. Group wealth management income accounted for 35 per cent of the group’s 1H24 total income, rising from 33 per cent a year ago. Wealth management AuM reached a new high of S$279 billion, up from S$274 billion in the previous year.

UOB
The group's retail wealth management income for Q2 2024 grew by 40 per cent year-on-year led by improved sales in structured notes, bonds and unit trusts, as well as steady growth in bancassurance, it said. Total assets under management from affluent customers rose to S$182 billion, 10 per cent higher than a year ago.

Emirates NBD
The bank said assets under management grew by 41 per cent year-on-year in the first six months of 2024 to $25 billion.

Income stood at AED21.4 billion, up 0.4 per cent on the same half-year period a year before. Net profit was AED13.8 per cent, up 12 per cent.