JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America say they’ve lost $5.188 billion from customers who have been declared unable to pay their bills.
The banks outlined the Q4 losses in “net charge-offs” statements, revealing loans that the banks have declared as uncollectible and removed from their books after exhausting efforts to recover the owed amounts.
-->JPMorgan Chase reported the highest charge-offs at $2.4 billion, driven largely by customers with big unpaid balances on their credit cards.
Bank of America recorded $1.5 billion in charge-offs, also primarily from its credit card portfolio.
And Wells Fargo reported $1.288 billion in charge-offs, fueled by higher credit card losses and commercial real estate losses in its office portfolio.
The new numbers come as US credit card debt hits a record $1.21 trillion, according to new numbers from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The collective losses at the three banks represent a $188 million increase over the previous quarter, and a $460 million increase from one year ago.
Despite the losses, the banks reported major earnings in Q4, with JPMorgan Chase declaring $14 billion in profits, Bank of America reporting $6.7 billion and Wells Fargo coming in at $5.1 billion.
