Three large US banks post Q4 earnings

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) – Three of the U.S.' biggest banks announced Friday their net income and revenues for the fourth quarter of 2016.

JP Morgan Chase's net income rose 24 percent to $6.73 billion, from $5.43 billion the same quarter of 2015. Revenues were also up 2.4 percent to $24.33 billion during the October-December period of 2016, from $23.75 billion the same period in the previous year.

After the release of the results, share value of JP Morgan Chase increased 1.6 percent on Wall Street to as high as $87.95.

At Bank of America, net income increased 43 percent to $4.69 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016, which was up from $3.28 billion from the same quarter the previous year.

Revenues also increased, by 2.1 percent, to reach $19.99 billion from $19.58 billion during the same period.

Shares of the bank gained 1.7 percent to $23.32 in the stock market after positive results.

Stirred with illegal banking activities, Wells Fargo's earnings were highly anticipated.

The bank said Friday its net income fell 5.3 percent to $5.3 billion in fourth quarter of 2016, from $5.6 billion the same quarter of 2015. Revenues remained unchanged at $21.6 billion year-over-year.

Despite the decline in net income, Wells Fargo earnings beat market expectations, which expected the bank to post less profits. Wells Fargo stock price gained 2.4 percent Friday morning to reach $56.01 in the stock market.

"We continued to make progress in the fourth quarter in rebuilding the trust of our customers, team members and other key stakeholders," President and CEO Tim Sloan said in a statement, and added the bank is "fulfilling our regulatory requirements for sales practices matters."

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a $185 million fine in September for the illegal banking practices at Wells Fargo that dated to 2011, after employees opened millions of accounts and applied for half a million credit card accounts that were not authorized by customers, in order to boost sales figures and meet sales targets.

Wells Fargo fired 5,300 of its employees involved in the scandal. Then-CEO John Stumpf agreed in September to forfeit his equity awards valued at $41 million and retired from the company.