JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to add to its headcount this year as the firm sees opportunities in everything from dealmaking to U.S. wealth management to international retail banking, bucking a trend by Wall Street rivals who have shed thousands of jobs in recent months.
After a subdued couple of years, the biggest U.S. bank is seeing "plenty of growth" and "all the components are for a strong year" President Daniel Pinto said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's Francine Lacqua on Wednesday from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The lender is also seeing growth opportunities for its payments division.
JPMorgan "has the returns and the firepower to continue investing through the cycles and that is really what allows us to continue, regardless of the economic environment, to continue growing," he said. "When I look at our plans, we will increase our staff this year for sure."
The bank currently employs more than 300,000 people and "the number of people that we employ has been growing and not shrinking," Pinto said.
Pinto's comments come after JPMorgan closed out the most profitable year in U.S. banking history and forecast that the windfall may continue this year.
During recent earnings calls, many Wall Street executives said they expect a dealmaking pickup following a prolonged drought that brought investment-banking revenue last year to the lowest level in more than a decade.
Still, JPMorgan's hiring plans stand in contrast to many of its largest competitors.
Citigroup Inc. said last week it will eliminate 20,000 roles to save as much as $2.5 billion as part of Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser's quest to boost its lagging returns.
