Card Volumes Fail to Reach High Bar at JPMorgan and Wells Fargo

(Bloomberg) -- Card volumes at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. aren’t growing as much as the Street had expected, echoing Citigroup Inc.’s results Monday.

Total purchase volume growth decelerated quarter-over-quarter at both JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, which reported earnings Tuesday. That’s in-line to “slightly weaker” than what KBW analyst Sanjay Sakhrani had expected for Visa, and he notes that both banks are primarily Visa issuers.

At JPMorgan, U.S. credit card spending volume grew 10.3 percent, lower than the 11.6 percent increase in the third quarter, Sakhrani writes. That fell short of Morgan Stanley analyst Betsy Graseck’s estimate for a 12.3 percent increase. Meanwhile, at Wells Fargo, U.S. credit card volume increased 5 percent, compared to the 6 percent increase in the third-quarter.

Citigroup Inc., which posted earnings Monday and issues mostly Mastercard, reported a similar decline in growth, with total card volume increasing 6.6 percent year-over-year, compared to the 9 percent increase in the third quarter. The bank’s volume trends were "slightly weaker" than expectations for Mastercard, KBW wrote.

Shares of Visa and Mastercard are both up less than a percent, as the S&P 500 rose slightly, helped by technology stock strength after China ratcheted up stimulus measures to combat slowing growth.

American Express, which is down as much as 0.5%, reports results Jan. 17.

To contact the reporter on this story: Natasha Rausch in New York at nrausch@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Will Daley

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