Winning Them One at a TimeWide moat

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) — moat facet

1.7 million net new checking accounts in a year is a rate no amount of capital can accelerate, which is exactly why the franchise is worth what it is.

The reason a deposit franchise cannot be bought is that it is assembled one customer at a time, and JPMorgan is still assembling.

What the franchise added in 2025 (millions)1.7mNet new checking accounts10.4mNew credit card accounts3m+Wealth householdsActive mobile customers up 7% in 2025; 5,083 branches at year end
A rate of accumulation that no amount of capital can accelerate.

In 2025 the firm opened 1.7 million net new checking accounts and 10.4 million new credit card accounts, and grew wealth management households past three million1. Active mobile customers rose 7%2, and debit and credit card sales volume rose 7%3.

Each of those is small individually and enormous in aggregate, and none of it can be accelerated with capital. A competitor with unlimited money can buy a bank — and pay a premium for deposits already gathered — but cannot manufacture the process by which a household chooses where to keep its salary.

The distribution behind it is physical as well as digital: JPMorgan Chase Bank operates branches in 48 states and Washington, D.C.4, a footprint no new entrant will build and few incumbents can afford to maintain.

The honest qualification is that account growth is not the same as balance growth. Ten million new credit card accounts add revenue and risk; 1.7 million checking accounts add deposits whose size depends entirely on the customers' incomes.

The number to watch is deposits per account rather than accounts. The first measures a franchise; the second measures a marketing budget.

Moat trajectory: Widening

1.7 million net new checking accounts, 10.4 million new card accounts and wealth households past three million in a single year, with active mobile customers up 7%. The account-acquisition machine is running faster than the deposit base is growing.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Net new checking accounts opened
1.7 million in 2025

Alongside 10.4 million new credit card accounts and wealth management households passing three million. None of this can be accelerated with capital — a competitor can buy a bank but cannot manufacture the decision to have a salary paid in. Watch deposits per account rather than accounts.

Source: JPMorgan Chase fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings release ↗
⚠ Threats to the moat
⚠ THREAT 01
Ten Million New Card Accounts Is Also Ten Million New Borrowers
A cohort acquired in a strong labour market is tested in a weak one, and the card book is the part of a bank that breaks first.
References
  1. ReportedThe firm opened 10.4 million new credit card accounts and grew wealth management households past three million in 2025.
    JPMorgan Chase & Co., fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings release (Form 8-K, exhibit 99.1) — fourth-quarter net income $13.0bn ($4.63 per share), or $14.7bn ($5.23) excluding a significant item; full-year 2025 net income $57.0bn ($20.02 per share), 2025 ROE 17% and ROTCE 20%. Fourth-quarter reported revenue $45.8bn and managed revenue $46.8bn; net interest income $25.1bn, up 7%; expense $24.0bn; credit costs $4.7bn with $2.5bn of net charge-offs. CET1 Standardized 14.5% and Advanced 14.1%, total loss-absorbing capacity $564bn, Standardized RWA $2.0tn, cash and marketable securities $1.5tn; book value per share $126.99 up 9% and tangible book value per share $107.56 up 11%; Basel III CET1 capital $288bn; supplementary leverage ratio 5.8%; net payout over the last twelve months 82%. Segment returns: CCB 4Q ROE 25% and 2025 ROE 32% with a Card Services net charge-off rate of 3.14%, debit and credit card sales volume up 7% and active mobile customers up 7%; CIB 4Q ROE 19% and 2025 ROE 18%, investment banking fees down 5% year on year with a #1 ranking for global investment banking fees at 8.4% wallet share for the year, markets revenue up 17%; AWM 4Q ROE 44% and 2025 ROE 40%, AUM $4.8tn up 18%. Payments revenue reached a record $5.1bn. In 2025 the firm opened 1.7 million net new checking accounts and 10.4 million new credit card accounts and grew wealth management households to over 3 million. The significant item in 4Q25 was a $2.2bn credit reserve established for the forward purchase commitment of the Apple credit card portfolio, a $0.60 decrease in EPS. — Q4 and FY2025 · publ. 2026-01-13 · source ↗
  2. ReportedActive mobile customers rose 7% in 2025, and debit and credit card sales volume rose 7%.
    JPMorgan Chase & Co., fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings release (Form 8-K, exhibit 99.1) — fourth-quarter net income $13.0bn ($4.63 per share), or $14.7bn ($5.23) excluding a significant item; full-year 2025 net income $57.0bn ($20.02 per share), 2025 ROE 17% and ROTCE 20%. Fourth-quarter reported revenue $45.8bn and managed revenue $46.8bn; net interest income $25.1bn, up 7%; expense $24.0bn; credit costs $4.7bn with $2.5bn of net charge-offs. CET1 Standardized 14.5% and Advanced 14.1%, total loss-absorbing capacity $564bn, Standardized RWA $2.0tn, cash and marketable securities $1.5tn; book value per share $126.99 up 9% and tangible book value per share $107.56 up 11%; Basel III CET1 capital $288bn; supplementary leverage ratio 5.8%; net payout over the last twelve months 82%. Segment returns: CCB 4Q ROE 25% and 2025 ROE 32% with a Card Services net charge-off rate of 3.14%, debit and credit card sales volume up 7% and active mobile customers up 7%; CIB 4Q ROE 19% and 2025 ROE 18%, investment banking fees down 5% year on year with a #1 ranking for global investment banking fees at 8.4% wallet share for the year, markets revenue up 17%; AWM 4Q ROE 44% and 2025 ROE 40%, AUM $4.8tn up 18%. Payments revenue reached a record $5.1bn. In 2025 the firm opened 1.7 million net new checking accounts and 10.4 million new credit card accounts and grew wealth management households to over 3 million. The significant item in 4Q25 was a $2.2bn credit reserve established for the forward purchase commitment of the Apple credit card portfolio, a $0.60 decrease in EPS. — Q4 and FY2025 · publ. 2026-01-13 · source ↗
  3. ReportedActive mobile customers rose 7% in 2025, and debit and credit card sales volume rose 7%.
    JPMorgan Chase & Co., fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings release (Form 8-K, exhibit 99.1) — fourth-quarter net income $13.0bn ($4.63 per share), or $14.7bn ($5.23) excluding a significant item; full-year 2025 net income $57.0bn ($20.02 per share), 2025 ROE 17% and ROTCE 20%. Fourth-quarter reported revenue $45.8bn and managed revenue $46.8bn; net interest income $25.1bn, up 7%; expense $24.0bn; credit costs $4.7bn with $2.5bn of net charge-offs. CET1 Standardized 14.5% and Advanced 14.1%, total loss-absorbing capacity $564bn, Standardized RWA $2.0tn, cash and marketable securities $1.5tn; book value per share $126.99 up 9% and tangible book value per share $107.56 up 11%; Basel III CET1 capital $288bn; supplementary leverage ratio 5.8%; net payout over the last twelve months 82%. Segment returns: CCB 4Q ROE 25% and 2025 ROE 32% with a Card Services net charge-off rate of 3.14%, debit and credit card sales volume up 7% and active mobile customers up 7%; CIB 4Q ROE 19% and 2025 ROE 18%, investment banking fees down 5% year on year with a #1 ranking for global investment banking fees at 8.4% wallet share for the year, markets revenue up 17%; AWM 4Q ROE 44% and 2025 ROE 40%, AUM $4.8tn up 18%. Payments revenue reached a record $5.1bn. In 2025 the firm opened 1.7 million net new checking accounts and 10.4 million new credit card accounts and grew wealth management households to over 3 million. The significant item in 4Q25 was a $2.2bn credit reserve established for the forward purchase commitment of the Apple credit card portfolio, a $0.60 decrease in EPS. — Q4 and FY2025 · publ. 2026-01-13 · source ↗
  4. ReportedJPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. operates US branches in 48 states and Washington, D.C.
    JPMorgan Chase & Co., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2025 (SEC, CIK 19617) — total net revenue $182,447M against $177,556M in 2024 and $158,104M in 2023; total noninterest expense $95,640M; pre-provision profit $86,807M; provision for credit losses $14,212M; net income $57,048M and diluted EPS $20.02; return on equity 17%, return on tangible common equity 20% (22% in 2024, 21% in 2023), return on assets 1.29%, overhead ratio 52% (52% in 2024, 55% in 2023), loans-to-deposits ratio 58% (56%, 55%), liquidity coverage ratio 111%. Total assets $4,424,900M, loans $1,493,429M, deposits $2,559,320M (63% of total liabilities), long-term debt $435,206M, common stockholders' equity $342,393M, tangible common equity $290,018M, book value per share $126.99 and tangible book value per share $107.56; dividends declared per share $5.80 (2024 $4.80, 2023 $4.10). Segment total net revenue: Consumer & Community Banking $76,029M, $71,507M and $70,148M; Commercial & Investment Bank $78,454M, $70,114M and $64,353M; Asset & Wealth Management $24,073M, $21,578M and $19,827M across 2025, 2024 and 2023. Banking & Payments revenue by client coverage: Global Corporate Banking and Global Investment Banking $25,285M and Commercial Banking $11,851M in 2025. Deposit average balances and rates: US non-interest-bearing $572,014M (2024 $611,734M, 2023 $635,791M), US interest-bearing demand $321,145M at 3.26%, US savings $875,519M at 1.41%; total deposits average rate 1.80% (2024 2.08%, 2023 1.70%). Firmwide estimated uninsured deposits $1,558.6bn at 31 December 2025 and $1,414.0bn a year earlier, 'primarily reflecting wholesale operating deposits'. Basel III common equity Tier 1 capital $288bn, Standardized ratio 14.6%; the Standardized CET1 requirement including regulatory buffers was 11.5%, with a stress capital buffer of 2.5% effective through 30 September 2027 and the annual capital plan due 6 April 2026. Capital is allocated to the lines of business using standardized risk-weighted assets and the GSIB surcharge, reassessed at least annually; the enhanced supplementary leverage ratio rules were revised to set the buffer at 50% of the firm's US Method 1 GSIB surcharge. The July 2023 Basel III endgame proposal was never finalised, and in September 2025 the Federal Reserve's Vice Chair for Supervision indicated regulators may issue an updated proposal in early 2026, the timing and content of which remain uncertain. 2025 included a $588M First Republic-related gain and an estimated bargain purchase gain of $2.8bn was recorded for the year ended 31 December 2023; 2024 revenue included a $7.9bn net gain on Visa shares. Apple Card transaction: on 7 January 2026 the firm announced Chase will become the new issuer of Apple Card, having entered a forward purchase commitment on 30 December 2025, with expected closing in approximately 24 months; the 2025 provision includes $2.2bn for lending-related commitments and the Standardized CET1 ratio decreased approximately 25 basis points. 2026 outlook: net interest income excluding Markets of approximately $95bn and adjusted expense of approximately $105bn, with a Card Services net charge-off rate of approximately 3.4%. Global workforce of 318,512 employees; JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. operates US branches in 48 states and Washington, D.C. Competition: 'Competitors include other banks, brokerage firms, investment banking companies, merchant banks, hedge funds, commodity trading companies, private equity firms, insurance companies, mutual fund companies, investment managers, credit card companies, mortgage banking companies, trust companies, securities processing companies, automobile financing companies, leasing companies, e-commerce and other internet-based companies, digital asset and other financial technology companies'; 'New competitors in the financial services industry continue to emerge, including firms that offer products and services solely through the internet and non-financial companies that offer products and services that disintermediate traditional banking products and services'. Risk factors warn that advocacy by non-banking competitors for exemptions from regulatory requirements could significantly disadvantage traditional financial institutions; that failing to keep pace with rapidly changing technological advances including generative AI risks losing clients and market share, with competition intensifying as new technologies become more capable and scalable; that adverse conditions could prompt outflows or cause clients to invest in products that generate lower revenue; and that the interconnectivity across credit markets increases the risk that the significant expansion of private credit could worsen losses among non-bank lenders and their borrowers, particularly if stress or defaults spread to broader funding and credit markets. — FY2025 · publ. 2026-02-13 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 23, 2026