With banks starting to release first quarter earnings this week, early results show the potential extent of the coronavirus’ impact on both local community banks and international titans of finance.
JPMorgan Chase had net income of $2.86 billion, down 69 percent from the first quarter of 2019. Earnings per share were $0.78 in the first quarter compared to $2.65 at the same time last year. The bank attributed the decrease primarily to the need to build credit reserves across the firm due to the impact of the coronavirus.
Earnings for Chase’s Consumer and Community Banking showed an even steeper decline. First quarter net income was $191 million compared to $3.947 billion in the first quarter last year. The 95 percent drop was also attributed primarily to reserve builds.
The reserve builds drove the consumer bank’s provision for credit losses to $5.8 billion, up $4.5 billion from the prior year.
“The first quarter delivered some unprecedented challenges and required us to focus on what we as a bank could do – outside of our ordinary course of business – to remain strong, resilient and well-positioned to support all of our stakeholders,” JPMorgan Chase President and CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement.
Despite the impact of the coronavirus, Dimon said the consumer and community bank in March opened 500,000 new accounts for card customers and extended over $6 billion of new and increased credit lines. He added that the consumer bank lent over $500 million to small businesses in March.
Similar results were reflected in the earnings a local community bank, Hingham Institution for Savings. The bank yesterday reported net income for the quarter ended March 31 as $2.18 million compared to $9.82 million in the first quarter of 2019. Earnings per diluted share were $1.00 compared to $4.50 per share diluted for the same period last year, a 78 percent decrease.
Hingham Institution for Savings, which operates in both eastern Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., has a commercial real estate portfolio concentrated in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and Brookline, primarily consisting of multifamily and mixed-use properties, with apartment units providing the main cash flow.
Despite the coronavirus impact, the bank’s total assets increased to $2.65 billion, up 6 percent since March 31 last year.
“Current economic conditions are extraordinary and we cannot predict with any degree of certainty the near-term impact these conditions will have on the bank or the markets in which we operate,” Chairman Robert H. Gaughen Jr. said in a statement. “We will continue to invest in relationships with new and existing customers with strong balance sheets, attractive real estate assets, and significant deposit needs and build these relationships for the long term.”






