Here is a recap of the figures from major banking groups for the fourth quarter of 2022.

Here is a summary of the results from a range of the major banking groups and some other financial actors around the world. 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, so the exchange rate comparisons with the dollar have been removed. We hope readers find it useful to see these figures collated in one article. To comment, email tom.burroughes@wealthbriefing.com

JP Morgan 
The asset and wealth management arm reported net income of $1.1 billion, edging up 1 per cent on a year earlier, and achieved on the back of a 3 per cent rise in net revenue, standing at $4.6 billion. The revenue gain was driven by higher deposit margins on lower balances, predominantly offset by lower management, performance and placement fees linked to last year’s market declines, and lower investment valuation gains compared with the prior year. Noninterest costs were $3.0 billion, rising 1 per cent, reflecting higher investments in the business and structural expense, predominantly offset by lower volume- and revenue-related expense. The provision for credit losses was $32 million, driven by a net reserve build. Assets under management stood at $2.8 trillion, falling 11 per cent as markets weakened.

Bank of America
The group’s wealth management business, including its private bank and Merrill Lynch businesses, logged net income of $1.2 billion, a fall of 2 per cent on a year ago in the fourth quarter of 2022. Pre-tax income stood at $1.6 billion, a fall of 2 per cent on a year earlier. Pre-tax, pre-provision income rose 4 per cent to $1.6 billion. BoA’s wealth business, which logged record fourth-quarter revenue of $5.4 billion, increased marginally as higher net interest income was mostly offset by the impact of lower market valuations on non-interest income.

Non-interest costs, which were $3.8 billion, fell 1 per cent, driven by lower revenue-related incentives, partially offset by investments in the business, including strategic hiring and marketing. Bank of America’s private bank reported client balances of $565 billion, and assets under management balances of $314 billion. It added about 550 net new relationships in the fourth quarter, a rise of 5 per cent on a year before. In the Merrill Lynch Management business line, client balances stood at $2.8 trillion; assets under management balances were $1.1 billion and it added about 8,500 net new households, rising 27 per cent.

Goldman Sachs 
Net revenues in the wealth and asset management business slumped by 39 per cent in 2022 from a year before, mainly hit by significantly weaker equity and debt investment revenues. Incentive fees were significantly lower, primarily driven by harvesting in the prior year. Management and other fees were higher, reflecting the inclusion of NN Investment Partners and a reduction in fee waivers on money market funds. Private banking and lending net revenues were significantly higher, primarily reflecting higher deposit spreads, as well as higher loan and deposit balances. In the fourth quarter, asset and wealth management net revenues fell 27 per cent year-on-year, standing at $3.56 billion.

Wells Fargo
The wealth and investment management arm of Wells Fargo, including its private banking arm, logged a rise in net income in the fourth quarter of 2022. Q4 2022 net income was $715 million, against $564 million a year earlier. Total revenue rose to $3.695 billion, up from $3.648 billion a year ago. Total client assets stood at $1.864 trillion, down from $2.183 trillion in December 2021.

Morgan Stanley 
The group’s wealth management arm clocked up record 2022 net revenues of $24.4 billion compared with $24.2 billion in the prior year. The US firm said that its pre-tax income of $6.6 billion led to a pre-tax margin of 27.0 per cent, or 28.4 per cent when the effect of integration-related costs are excluded. Fee-based client assets stood at $1.678 trillion at the end of December last year, declining from $1.839 trillion a year earlier. During the fourth quarter of 2022, the firm booked $51.6 billion in net new assets, shrinking from $127 billion a year before.

Citigroup
In the personal banking and wealth management arm, revenues, at $6.1 billion, rose 5 per cent in Q4 2022 from a year before as net interest income growth, driven by strong loan growth across US personal banking and higher interest rates, was partially offset by a decline in non-interest revenue, driven by the lower investment product revenues in global wealth management and higher partner payments in retail services.

Global Wealth Management revenues were $1.7 billion, falling 6 per cent as investment product revenue headwinds more than offset net interest income growth from the higher interest rates, particularly in Asia. Excluding Asia, revenues were largely unchanged. PBWM operating costs of $4.3 billion increased by 7 per cent, primarily driven by transformation investments and other risk and control initiatives. Within the private bank, revenues were $589 million in Q4, down from $688 million a year before. For all of 2022, revenues were $2.762 billion, falling 6 per cent on a year earlier.

BNY Mellon 
Pre-tax income at the market and wealth services arm rose 21 per cent year-on-year to $608 million in the Q4 2022, driven by a 19 per cent revenue gain of $1.399 billion in the quarter. In its Pershing business – which works with wealth managers and other financial parties – total revenue rose 22 per cent to $673 million in Q4 2022. However, within the firm's investment and wealth management business, total revenues fell 19 per cent while pre-tax income fell 55 per cent. 

Assets under custody/administration stood at $44.3 trillion, falling by 5 per cent, primarily reflecting lower market values and the unfavourable impact of a stronger US dollar, partially offset by client inflows and net new business. As for assets under management, they stood at $1.8 trillion, sliding by 25 per cent due mainly from the falls in global markets last year, the adverse impact of the stronger dollar, and the divestiture of the Alcentra business.

Northern Trust 
Total assets under management rose to $1.249 trillion at the end of 2022, falling by 22 per cent on a year earlier as global markets declined. Within that figure, the wealth management portion fell 16 per cent in the fourth quarter to $351.4 billion. Total assets under custody stood at $10.6 trillion, falling by 16 per cent. Trust, investment and other servicing fees stood at $588 billion in Q4 2022, a fall of 6 per cent on a year earlier. Wealth management servicing fees fell 7 per cent to $454 million.

UBS
Within UBS’s flagship global wealth management division, it logged a Q4 2022 operating profit of $1.058 billion, rising 88 per cent from a year before, but down 27 per cent from the previous three-month period. Operating expenses fell 17 per cent year-on-year, but rose 6 per cent from the previous quarter. Total revenues dropped 5 per cent on a year before. Net interest income rose 35 per cent – perhaps unsurprisingly in a rising interest rate environment. Recurring net fee income fell 17 per cent. The GWM business held $1.271 trillion of fee-generating assets at the end of 2022, down 14 per cent on a year ago and reflecting some of the fall in global financial markets last year. Total invested assets were $2.815 trillion, down 15 per cent; customer deposits were $348.2 billion, down 6 per cent.

Credit Suisse 
Total assets under management stood at SFr1.294 trillion at the end of 2022, down from SFr1.614 tillion at the end of the previous year; there was a net asset outflow in Q4 2022 of SFr110 billion, translating into an outflow for all of 2022 of SFr123.2 billion, against a net new money inflow of SFr30.9 billion in 2021. The group made a net loss (on a reported basis), attributable to shareholders, of SFr1.393 billion ($1.51 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2022. For the whole of last year, its net loss was SFr3.258 billion, widening from the SFr600 million loss in 2021.

Deutsche Bank
Private banking net revenues rose 11 per cent in 2022 to €9.2 billion from a year before, rising 6 per cent if adjusted for one-off items. New business volumes, which were €41 billion in 2022, comprising net inflows into assets under management, including deposits and investment products, were €30 billion, and net new client loans were €11 billion. Net revenues in the Private Bank Germany group stood at €5.3 billion, rising 6 per cent year-on-year, and by 4 per cent if adjusted for the impact of the BGH ruling. (The latter point refers to the German Federal Court of Justice in April 2021 ruling on pricing changes on current accounts and higher revenues from Sal. Oppenheim workout activities.) Net revenues in the international private bank were €3.8 billion, up 19 per cent year on year, and up 9 per cent if adjusted for the gain on sale in Italy and other specific items which consisted of Sal. Oppenheim workout activities.

HSBC
Adjusted pre-tax profit for 2022 in wealth and personal banking rose 35.5 per cent year-on-year to $8.533 billion, while group results for the year rose to $24 billion from $20.6 billion. Net operating income in the wealth, personal banking arm (which includes the private bank) stood at $23.2 billion in 2022, up from $21.2 billion a year before. Wealth, personal banking costs were $14.7 billion last year, up from $14.5 billion. This division had an adjusted cost/income ratio of 69.1 per cent. As far as the overall HSBC group was concerned, it logged a profit, attributable to shareholders, of $16.67 billion in 2022, widening from $14.693 billion.

BNP Paribas
Wealth and asset management division’s revenues rose 6 per cent year-on-year to €3.896 billion in 2022, driven by rising net interest income in the wealth arm, rising principal investment and higher real estate revenue. On the asset management side, revenues were hit by a “highly unfavourable market environment,” the Paris-based group said of the fall to stock and bond markets last year. Operating costs rose 4.6 per cent on a year ago to €2.806 billion. Wealth and asset management pre-tax income rose 10 per cent, at €1.244 billion. This result included the impact of lower capital gains on sales made in 2022, compared with 2021.

Societe Generale 
In the private banking arm, which was folded into the French retail banking business at the start of 2022, it logged total assets under management of €147 billion at the end of last year, down from €150 billion a year earlier. The group said it booked asset inflow growth of 4 per cent last year against the end of 2021. Net banking income at SocGen’s private banking group was €296 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, rising 7.6 per cent on the same period a year ago; for the full year, the figure was €1.278 billion, up 15.9 per cent year-on-year. Private banking revenues in Q4 2022 totalled €2.219 billion, stable versus a year ago. Net interest income and other revenues weakened 1.8 per cent.

Standard Chartered 
The bank reported a profit, attributable to ordinary shareholders, of $2.999 billion in 2022, rising 12 per cent from a year before. On a pre-tax basis, profit rose 13 per cent to $4.762 billion. Credit impairment widened to $838 million in 2022, versus an impairment of $263 million in 2021; operating costs rose to $10.74 billion, rising 4 per cent, while operating income rose 10 per cent to $16.255 billion.

Wealth management operating income in Q4 2022 was $359 million, down from $466 million a year earlier. Income was hit because clients took risk off the table amid volatile market conditions, depressing transaction volumes. There was also a hit caused by Covid-19 restrictions last year in some regions, particularly North Asia, consequently some branches shut down, cutting face-to-face sales. (Standard Chartered, while a UK-based bank, earns the bulk of its revenue in Asia, Africa and the Indian sub-continent.)

Secured lending in wealth management fell by a third as a result of client deleveraging. Net new sales remained positive, albeit at a lower level than in 2021. Standard Chartered said consumer, private and business banking profit increased 30 per cent year-on-year in 2022, to $1.596 billion, which was 35 per cent higher on a constant currency basis. Income grew 10 per cent on a constant currency basis with increased deposit income partly offset by subdued Wealth Management and the impact of the Best Lending Rate cap on Hong Kong mortgage income. On a constant currency basis, expenses grew 3 per cent and impairments decreased by $10 million.

Lloyds Banking Group
Statutory profit before tax stood at £6.9 billion (2021: £6.9 billion), with higher net income and lower total costs offset by impairment charges as a result of the revised economic outlook (versus a significant write-back in 2021). The bank reported net income of £18.0 billion, up 14 per cent, supported by continued recovery in customer activity and UK Bank Rate changes, alongside continued low operating lease depreciation.

Coutts
The bank chalked up a 25 per cent year-on-year gain in operating profit for 2022, reaching £436 million, while its return on equity stood at 24.5 per cent last year, rising 7.5 per cent.  The results from the UK private bank also showed that deposits gained 5 per cent to £1.9 billion on a year ago; lending rose by 4 per cent to $19.2 billion. Net new money grew 5.6 per cent, at £2 billion. Markets affected assets under management and administration: AuMA stood at £33.4 billion at the end of 2022.

Emirates NBD
Profits surged 40 per cent to AED13 billion in 2022. Q4 profit was AED3.9 billion, rising strongly by 94 per cent on a year earlier, reflecting improving margins and a lower cost of risk. Within retail banking and wealth management, the bank said loan origination rose 39 per cent, credit card acquisitions rose 100 per cent and card spends rose 31 per cent year-on-year.

DBS
The bank said its 2022 net profit grew 20 per cent to S$8.19 billion. Total income rose 16 per cent to S$16.5 billion. Higher interest rates boosted net interest income, more than offsetting a decline in non-interest income due to financial market volatility. During 2022, wealth management fees declined to S$1.33 billion as weaker market conditions led to lower investment product sales. Full-year consumer banking/wealth management income rose 25 per cent to S$6.65 billion as higher interest rates more than offset the impact of lower wealth management product sales. Wealth management customer segment income increased 20 per cent as higher interest rates and a doubling of net new money inflows more than offset lower fee income from investment sales.

OCBC
The group reported that net fee income fell 18 per cent year-on-year in 2022 to S$1.85 billion, with softer wealth management fees taking a toll as clients shifted to lower-risk investments amidst difficult markets. However, the market turmoil of 2022 had a positive effect on net trading income because clients transacted more business. Fee income rose 9 per cent to S$34 million. There was a net loss from the sale of investment securities, at S$206 million, against a comparable gain of S$92 million in 2021, caused mostly by bond portfolio rebalancing and positioning in the turbulent markets.

OCBC’s wealth management income stood at S$3.89 billion in 2022, down from S$4.01 billion a year earlier. It made up 33 per cent of total group income. Total assets under management stood at S$258 billion, against S$257 billion a year before. Net new money flows offset the downward effect of falling markets.

UOB
United Overseas Bank reported a record high “core” net profit for 2022 of S$4.8 billion, rising 18 per cent on a year ago. Including one-off expenses relating to the acquisition of Citigroup’s Malaysia and Thailand consumer businesses, net profit was also a record high at S$4.6 billion. Net interest income jumped 31 per cent to S$8.3 billion on the back of 3 per cent loan growth and a 30 basis point net interest margin improvement.

Net fee income remained soft as weak market sentiment weighed on wealth management and loan-related activities. However, a strong double-digit growth in credit card fees partially offset the decline. Asset quality remained benign with non-performing loan (NPL) ratio at 1.6 per cent.