Following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March, First Republic Bank was also seized last week and the bank was acquired by JPMorgan Chase Bank.

Also, following the events at Swiss-based Credit Suisse in March, the government stepped in to bail out the bank and UBS bought the bank with more than $250 billion of public support.

The pressure of the financial system due to the rise in interest rates and the tightening of the monetary policy in the last year and the difficulty in adapting to it triggered the bankruptcy of the banks.

The US Federal Reserve (Fed), at its meeting this week, raised the policy rate by 25 basis points, in line with expectations, to the range of 5-5.25 percent, the highest level in 16 years.

The European Central Bank (ECB), for its part, increased the three main policy rates by 25 basis points yesterday, raising the refinancing rate to 3.75%, the deposit rate to 3.25% and the marginal interest rate. financing at 4%.

The Bank of England is expected to raise the policy rate, which currently stands at 4.25 percent, to 4.50 by increasing 25 basis points at its meeting on May 11.

Many large-scale banks boosted their profits sharply in the first quarter of this year on the back of these high interest rates and weathered the storm in the banking sector with higher profits.

HSBC 3X ITS PROFIT BEFORE TAXES

Banking giant HSBC’s pre-tax profit in the first quarter of this year rose 210 percent (approximately $9 billion) compared to the same period a year earlier, reaching $12.9 billion. The bank’s revenue in this period increased 64 percent to $20.2 billion.

UK bank Barclays’ pre-tax profit in the first quarter beat expectations by $3.2bn (£2.6bn), up 16%, and revenue rose 11% to $9bn (£7.2bn). of sterling).

British Standard Chartered’s pre-tax profit, which makes up the bulk of its Asia revenue, rose 21 percent compared to the same period in 2022 and became $1.81 billion.

JPMORGAN, CITI, WELLSFARGO

JPMorgan Chase, one of the largest banks in the US, where problems in the banking sector have increased, rose 52 percent to $12.6 billion in the first quarter of this year, driven by high interest rates. . In the same period last year, the bank’s net income was $8.3 billion.

The bank’s revenue reached a record level of $38.3 billion.

Citigroup’s first-quarter net income increased 7 percent to $4.6 billion, while revenue increased 12 percent to $21.4 billion.

Wells Fargo’s net income for the January-March period increased 32 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching $4.9 billion. The bank made a profit of $3.8 billion in the first quarter of 2022.

GREAT INCREASE IN PROFITS OF THE FRENCH BANK

The net profit of French BNP Paribas, the largest bank in the eurozone, increased 140 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2022, reaching 4.9 billion dollars (4.4 billion euros).

The bank’s revenues exceeded expectations by 13.2 billion dollars (12 billion euros). The sale of US-based Bank of the West also contributed to BNP Paribas’ revenue growth.

Deutsche Bank, one of the largest banks in Germany, headquartered in Frankfurt, increased its pre-tax profit by 12 percent in the first quarter to $2 billion (1.9 billion euros) due to revenue from the additions interest rates.

Deutsche Bank’s net income in the first quarter of this year was 7.7 billion euros, up 5 percent from the same period in 2022. Although the bank has increased its profits, it also said it may cut staff that are not is a customer to further reduce costs in the coming years. (AA)