JPMorgan's thousands of London bankers were hoping for big bonuses this year after the Wall Street giant showed profits rolling in as clients used its fund raising and trading services to get through Covid-19.
Third quarter revenues at JPMorgan's corporate and investment bank, which operates jointly between New York and Canary Wharf, hit $11.5 billion against $9.52 billion a year earlier, with profit jumping from $2.83 billion to $4.3 billion.
While that revenue was down on the previous quarter's volatility-fuelled $16.35 billion as the crisis moved through the peak months, it still represented a bumper quarter.
The amount of cash JPMorgan has set aside for salary and bonuses in the corporate and investment bank through the three quarters of this year is currently up 10% on last year, although executives at the bank cautioned that may change in the current, final quarter.
JPMorgan's London team advised on nearly $2 billion of equity raises for companies, according to Dealogic data.
That has included the flotation of online retail giant The Hut Group and fundraisers for property group Hammerson, service company Mitie, life sciences investor Syncona and tech group Renalytix AI.
Chief executive Jamie Dimon singled out higher underwriting fees for equity and debt raises as being behind a 9% jump in investment banking fees on the same quarter last year
In trading, the bank saw markets revenue surge 30% to $6.6 billion, driven by a $4.6 billion from fixed income, which includes products such as corporate and government bonds and securitised products.
