At the Goldman Sachs US Financial Services Conference on Tuesday, a number of bank CEOs and other high-ranking executives took to the stage and offered clues as to what the short-term future might hold for their respective institutions.

Senior staff from Wells Fargo, Lazard, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America were among those who spoke, with discussion also touching on the wider US economy.

Key takeaways

Lazard CEO Peter Orszag said he wants to double the investment bank’s revenue by 2030 by expanding the number of managing directors by 10 per year. Bloomberg reported him saying the bank wants to gradually increase each MD’s revenue goals to $8.5m per managing director by 2025, and $10m in 2028.

Marianne Lake, co-head of consumer and community banking at JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the US, said the bank retained 90% of First Republic’s customers since buying the failed bank in May, albeit with smaller deposits. “A lot of the deposits came down rationally and over a very short period of time, but we still have relationships,” Lake said. “So we still have a lot of opportunity to talk to them about bringing more of their wallet back to the company.”

But Wells Fargo, the nation’s fourth-largest bank, expects to set aside between $750m and $1 billion in this year’s fourth quarter for “unanticipated” severance costs, CEO Charlie Scharf said. “We have seen turnover come down,” he explained. “Unfortunately, we’re going to have to be more aggressive about our own internal actions.” Wells already spent $186m on severance costs last quarter, according to the FT, after eliminating 7,000 roles.

Economic outlook for 2024

Bank executives expressed more confidence in the economic outlook for 2024 after consumer and business behaviour showed surprising strength this year, as Reuters reports.

“People continue to be cautious on the US economy, but I think it’s very, very clear that the US economy has been more resilient than we expected … As I look at 2024, I think the chance for a softer landing is much, much higher. I think you’ve still got to be cautious, there’s still uncertainty,” said David Solomon, Goldman Sachs CEO.

“The consumer is still very, very strong … as we sit here today, our base case would be something closer to a soft landing as opposed to something far more serious than that.” Still, “we’re cautious and we’re careful” in the consumer business, monitoring borrowers closely and tightening credit across products, said Charlie Scharf, Wells Fargo CEO.

Brian Moynihan, Bank of America CEO, said: “We’ll be at about $1 billion in fees this quarter,” reflecting a low single-digit decline that “outperforms the industry”. The industrywide investment banking fee pool is expected to drop 10% to 15%, he said.