America’s biggest banks are ending 2025 on top with big growth goals and markets ‘wide open’
America’s biggest banks are ending 2025 with their stock prices at record highs, more assets on their balance sheet, and a level of regulatory freedom they haven’t seen in 15 years. In the year ahead, the industry and its top firms plan to turn that momentum into a growth story. Bank of America (BAC), the nation’s second-largest bank, saw its stock hit a record high in December, finally surpassing its pre-crisis peak reached in 2006. Shares of JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC), the nation’s largest and fourth-largest banks, respectively, are trading at record highs. Citigroup’s (C) stock surpassed the net worth of its assets — known as its book value per share — for the first time in seven years. Citi shares remain 80% lower than their peak reached in 2000. Wall Street is a major part of the growth stories for these banks, with merger momentum and market volatility in 2025 spurring a surge in fees from their investment banking and trading divisions. Global investment banking volume for the year is on pace to climb 10% from 2024 to its highest level since 2021, according to Dealogic, despite tariff-related swings this spring that froze capital markets and IPO delays as a result of the government shutdown in the fall. Analysts expect trading fees at the banks this year to hit record highs. Banking analysts also expect net income across these four firms to reach a record high. Read more: Find money market accounts with interest rates of 4% APY and up Night view of the illuminated exterior of the New York Stock Exchange with a big American flag from the front facade. (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images) · NurPhoto via Getty Images At an industry conference hosted by Goldman Sachs (GS) this month, executives from these firms signaled plans to expand their empires in 2026. “Global economies at large have generally been resilient despite continued bouts of uncertainty,” Citigroup CFO Mark Mason said. “The capital markets are wide open to some extent.” Bank of America, which last month shared its growth ambitions with investors for the first time in nearly 15 years, is looking to lean deeper into cross-selling products between its consumer and wealth divisions by bolstering financial adviser recruiting and expansion efforts across its brick-and-mortar branch network. “We’re not just trying to sell things. We’re trying to sell stuff that sticks [to] the ribs,” Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said. Wells Fargo is also looking to grow virtually all of its businesses after regulators loosened rules earlier this year that restricted the firm’s growth, finally ending the overhang from its fake-accounts scandal in 2016. The bank’s total assets rose above $2 trillion in the third quarter, a threshold that would have been unthinkable under its prior restrictions.