JPMorgan is accruing higher bonuses for traders, probably cutting bankers
JPMorgan's first quarter results are out and if you work for the correct business areas in the corporate and investment bank (CIB), they look pretty fine.
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JPMorgan's equities traders just had their best quarter ever, with revenues up 48% versus the first quarter of 2024, and that was before the crazy volumes of the past week. Fixed income trading revenues at the bank rose by a more moderate 8% year-on-year, driven by commodities and rates desks.
It wasn't such a good quarter for JPMorgan's equity capital markets (ECM) bankers, whose revenues shrivelled by 9% versus the already muted first quarter last year. Debt capital markets and M&A bankers performed better, though, with revenues rising 16% in each business.
As revenues rose, JPMorgan accrued higher bonuses to be paid at the end of this year. Compensation spending in the CIB was up 9% on the first quarter of 2024, even as headcount remained stable over the period. Jobs were, however, cut between the fourth quarter and March 2025: 476 people disappeared, or 1% of total headcount.
It seems conceivable that JPMorgan accrued higher bonuses for its equities traders and cut heads in ECM and elsewhere.
Headcount for the corporate and investment bank includes a wide array of corporate bankers and securities services professionals. JPMorgan also removed around 500 people from its CIB in Q4. Barrons reported in February that the bank planned to make more cuts in "mid-March, May, June, August, and September." Those plans may have been revised following events this week.
Across the bank as a whole, provision for net credit losses rose 9% to $14.6bn in Q1. Return on equity was an impressive 18%.
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