JPMorgan Chase expects third-quarter investment banking fees and markets revenue to increase by a mid-to-high-teens percentage from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg, signaling continued strength across the bank’s Wall Street businesses despite broader concerns about investment banking activity.
The outlook was provided by JPMorgan Co-President Doug Petno, who also serves as CEO of the bank’s Commercial & Investment Bank, during the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference in New York.
Petno said performance remains broad-based across products and geographies and highlighted a strong investment banking pipeline that has carried through the quarter.
The guidance suggests JPMorgan continues to benefit from elevated client activity across investment banking and trading, even after an exceptionally strong second quarter.
The bank expects both investment banking fees and markets revenue to rise in the mid-to-high teens year over year during the third quarter.
Sequentially, however, revenue is expected to decline from the second quarter because of normal seasonal patterns.
That comparison is particularly difficult because JPMorgan’s second quarter represented a record period for parts of the Commercial & Investment Bank.
During the second quarter of 2026, JPMorgan reported investment banking fees of $3.21 billion, an increase of 28% from $2.50 billion a year earlier.
Investment Banking revenue, which also includes other components, reached $3.9 billion and increased 45%.
Investment banking fees were up 30% within the Commercial & Investment Bank, supported by higher revenue across products, including particularly strong equity underwriting activity.
Advisory fees increased 20% in the second quarter to approximately $1 billion, helped by transactions involving financial institutions, technology companies and diversified industrial businesses.
Debt underwriting fees increased 19% to $1.4 billion, while equity underwriting fees jumped 78% to $829 million.
The results illustrated the broad capital markets recovery that JPMorgan is now seeing continue into the third quarter.
Petno indicated that the investment banking pipeline remains strong rather than being concentrated in one product category or geographic market.
That distinction is important because Wall Street investment banking revenue can fluctuate considerably depending on the health of mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, equity issuance and debt markets.
JPMorgan entered 2026 expecting stronger deal activity after companies became increasingly willing to pursue strategic transactions despite economic, geopolitical and market uncertainty.
Earlier this year, Petno said investment banking pipelines were broad-based across debt capital markets, equity capital markets and M&A, with activity extending beyond the United States into Europe and Japan.
The latest third-quarter update indicates that much of that momentum has persisted.
JPMorgan’s markets business has also been performing at elevated levels.
During the second quarter, Markets revenue increased 35% year over year to approximately $12.1 billion.
Equity Markets revenue surged 86% to $6 billion, while Fixed Income Markets revenue increased 6% to approximately $6.1 billion.
Total Markets & Securities Services revenue reached $13.7 billion, up 33%.
The bank’s third-quarter expectation of mid-to-high-teens markets growth suggests trading activity remains strong even against increasingly difficult comparisons.
Markets businesses can benefit from higher client activity and volatility because investors, corporations and asset managers trade more frequently, reposition portfolios and use hedging products as economic and market conditions change.
JPMorgan has one of the largest trading franchises globally, spanning fixed income, currencies, commodities and equities.
The scale of that franchise has allowed the bank to capture a substantial portion of increased client activity across different asset classes.
The upbeat outlook also stands out against more cautious commentary elsewhere in the banking industry.
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan recently said his firm expects third-quarter investment banking fees to decline by at least 10% year over year, while sales and trading revenue is expected to be approximately flat.
That guidance contributed to pressure on bank shares and raised concerns that investment banking activity might be weakening more broadly.
JPMorgan’s comments suggest the environment may be considerably different for the industry’s largest investment banking franchises.
The largest global banks have increasingly captured a greater share of major transactions, particularly as deal activity becomes concentrated around large strategic M&A transactions, capital markets offerings and AI-related financing activity.
JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley collectively remain among the strongest franchises in those businesses.
Following Petno’s comments, JPMorgan shares reversed earlier declines and moved higher, with the stock rising roughly 1% during Tuesday afternoon trading.
The move also helped financial stocks recover some of their earlier losses as investors responded to the stronger-than-expected outlook.
Petno’s update carries additional significance because of his expanded role inside JPMorgan.
In June, JPMorgan named Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh Co-Presidents of the company as part of its senior leadership and succession planning.
Petno simultaneously became sole CEO of the Commercial & Investment Bank, which encompasses Global Banking, Markets, Payments and Securities Services.
He has worked at JPMorgan for 35 years and previously led Commercial Banking before helping oversee the integration of the bank’s commercial, corporate and investment banking businesses.
That combined Commercial & Investment Bank has become an increasingly important earnings engine for JPMorgan.
The business generated $24.9 billion of net revenue during the second quarter, up 27% from a year earlier, while net income increased 46% to $9.7 billion.
For the first six months of 2026, Commercial & Investment Bank revenue reached $48.2 billion, up 23%, with investment banking fees increasing 29% and markets revenue rising 27%.
JPMorgan also remained the world’s leading investment banking franchise during the first half of the year, ranking No. 1 globally in investment banking fees, according to Dealogic data cited by the company.
The bank had $5 trillion in total assets and $375 billion of stockholders’ equity as of June 30, 2026.
The third-quarter update indicates that momentum within the Commercial & Investment Bank has not materially faded following the record second quarter.
Although normal seasonality is expected to produce a sequential decline, mid-to-high-teens year-over-year growth in both investment banking fees and markets revenue would still represent another strong quarter for two of JPMorgan’s most important Wall Street businesses.
