Wall Street’s big banks reported stronger earnings and signaled resilience in consumer demand this week, setting aside their current conflict with the White House as they reported results for Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.
In statements and remarks tied to their latest quarterly reports, executives at all three banks pointed to profit growth and steady consumer metrics, while also addressing policy pressure that has escalated between the financial sector and President Donald Trump.
Brian Moynihan, Bank of America’s chief executive and chairman, said in a statement that “While any number of risks continue, we are bullish on the U.S. economy in 2026,” and he added that businesses and consumers are “proving resilient,” according to the banks’ disclosures.
Citigroup’s chief financial officer, Mark Mason, told reporters Wednesday that “The U.S. economy is doing just fine,” while acknowledging “downside risks out there, geopolitical risks in particular.” Mason said that when he “step[s] back and look[s] at it holistically,” he sees an economy that has managed “uncertainty and risks” in a “resilient type fashion.”
The banks’ optimism comes after a period when many large companies aligned with the Trump administration’s priorities, including tax cuts signed earlier and regulators pushing for a deregulatory agenda that banks and corporate dealmakers embraced, the Associated Press reported. But the banks now face a new point of friction: Trump’s stated plan to cap credit card interest rates at 10%.
Trump’s renewed focus also includes support for the Justice Department’s investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a development bankers see as a threat to the central bank’s independence, the Associated Press said. For banks with large and profitable credit card businesses, executives said they do not believe an interest-rate cap would work as intended.
Mason, speaking for Citigroup, said in remarks quoted by the Associated Press that “Affordability is a big issue and we look forward to collaborating with the administration on ways we can address this.” He added that “But an interest rate cap is not something we could or would support. It would restrict credit to those who need it the most and have a delirious impact on the economy,” according to the report.
Bank executives also said they were not seeing evidence of a widening “K-Shaped” economy, in which higher earners pull ahead while those lower on the income ladder fall behind. They pointed instead to continued spending by consumers and stability in other measures of consumer financial health, including delinquencies and charge-offs, the report said.
In its quarterly results, Bank of America posted a profit of $7.6 billion, or 98 cents per share, compared with $6.8 billion, or 83 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. The bank reported revenue of $28.4 billion, and it said credit card balances rose 3% year-over-year to $103 billion.
Bank of America also reported a 6% increase in credit and debit card spending, and said retail deposits grew to $945.4 billion. Wells Fargo, meanwhile, said it earned a profit of $5.36 billion, or $1.62 per share, compared with $5.08 billion, or $1.43 per share, a year earlier, on revenues of $21.3 billion.
Wells Fargo’s credit metrics, according to the Associated Press, showed consumer loan growth and more credit card activity, while delinquencies and charge-offs remained “relatively stable.”