JPMorgan Chase
- JPMorgan's president, Daniel Pinto, said the bank plans to increase staff this year.
- The focus will be on growth areas in retail, payments, and investment banking, Pinto told Bloomberg.
- JPMorgan reported a record annual profit of close to $50 billion in 2023.
Good news for anyone hoping to land a job on Wall Street: JPMorgan plans to expand its employee ranks this year.
"When I look at our plans, we will increase our staff this year, for sure," the bank's president, Daniel Pinto, said in an interview with Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum — an annual gathering in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos. Nearly 3,000 attended the conference this year including CEOs, billionaires, and government officials.
JPMorgan — which currently employs around 320,000 people — plans to double down on its core investment areas in retail, payments, and investment banking this year, Pinto said in the interview. He added that the bank "has the returns and the firepower to continue investing through the cycles and that is really what allows us to continue, regardless of the economic environment, to continue growing."
JPMorgan's plans for expansion also come on the heels of the most profitable year in its history. In 2023, the bank recorded a net income of close to $50 billion — marking a 32% jump from 2022 and beating its own record from 2021.
And its hiring goals also stand in contrast to its competitors — many of whom have announced in the past year plans to downsize.
Citigroup announced last week that it would be laying off around 20,000 workers over the coming three years as part of a corporate restructuring initiative internally known as "Project Bora Bora." Citi's announcement also follows what it called a "very disappointing" fourth quarter of 2023. Last year, major investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley also made staff cuts.
Major institutions on Wall Street have been tightening their belts in recent years amid a decline in dealmaking. In 2023, mergers and acquisition deals fell short of $3 trillion for the first time in a decade, and marked a 30% decline from the year prior. And while the forecast for 2024 still remains murky, investors say they're looking to signs like CEO confidence, corporate cash coffers, and inflation as they pray for an M&A rebound.