Bank of America vs. JPMorgan Chase: Diverging Quarterly Revenue Trends for These Financial Giants

Bank of America: Managing Mostly Flat Quarterly Revenue

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) primarily generates revenue by providing traditional consumer checking accounts, customized wealth management strategies, and global corporate lending.

While facing multiple securities fraud class action lawsuits and addressing a $1.2 billion penalty from the U.S. Treasury regarding anti-money laundering regulations, it acquired the cybersecurity firm MDSec Consulting Limited and introduced new generative AI capabilities alongside cross-border real-time payment solutions.

JPMorgan Chase: Delivering Consistent Upward Revenue Growth

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) primarily earns revenue by offering retail banking accounts, commercial investment vehicles, and dedicated institutional asset management.

It entered a $20 billion strategic asset management partnership with the Qatar Investment Authority and invested in sustainable forestry in Paraguay, while expanding its consumer offerings by removing foreign transaction fees from specific credit cards and launching a phased rollout for a new data security center.

Why Revenue Matters for Investors

Revenue here refers to the data provider's standardized income-statement revenue line item, which for banks in this data set is defined as interest income plus non-interest income and is not net of interest expense, and tracking this specific financial metric helps individuals accurately measure broad overall business volume.

Bank of America vs. JPMorgan Chase Revenue over the last 8 quarters.

Comparing Quarterly Revenue Trends for the Two Companies

Foolish Take

Normally, the first thing to note when examining a company's revenue trend is seasonality: some times of the year have stronger buying patterns than others. For most stocks, compare revenue year over year, by quarter. It may be surprising to hear, but there is seasonality in financials, too. Bank and business loans usually see an uptick in the early months of a year, while there's a quiet period in August. There is also seasonality in the revenue from the trading and fund asset management income stream, with the end of the year seeing more trading activity and portfolio rebalancing moves.

Looking at the chart for JP Morgan, it actually is hard to see much seasonality. The more robust "Wall Street" types of business the bank does, such as underwriting stocks and bonds, trading stocks, bonds, and commodities, and providing services for hedge funds, have been enjoying a strong year that appears to offset any seasonal weakness.

By contrast, Bank of America looks largely stagnant. This could be because it is much more reliant on consumer banking business, from savings accounts to credit cards to car loans. It's no secret American consumers are feeling squeezed, which may lead them to spend less on financial services with their bank. That could be, for instance, not buying a new car and not taking out a loan, or cutting back on purchases made on the credit card.

Revenue is perhaps the simplest metric investors have to judge a business by. As the chart shows, look for rising revenue, especially over similar periods of each year, and take comparable-quarter stagnation, or worse, declines, as a red flag.

Data source: Financial Modeling Prep. Data as of Oct. 22, 2026.

JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Brendan Coffey has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends JPMorgan Chase. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.