Four top U.S. banks report fourth-quarter earnings on Friday, and while all are expected to beat or match market forecasts, investors will be keenly watching their outlook statements for a glimpse of what’s expected for the year ahead.
Deloitte, in its 2024 Banking And Capital Markets Outlook, has already noted that this will be a challenging year as financial services companies grapple with a slowing global economy, cuts in interest rates, continued geopolitical tensions and more assertive regulations.
But there are likely to be other disruptive forces at work. Not least the exponential pace at which new technologies are likely to be adopted, adding layers of risk and raising capital spending costs.
“The impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), industry convergence, embedded finance, open data, digitization of money, decarbonization, digital identity and fraud will all grow in 2024,” said Mike Wade, one of the authors of the Deloitte report.
Last year the SPDR S&P Bank ETF (NYSE:KBE), an exchange traded fund that tracks S&P 500-listed institutions, gained just 3.2% over the year, compared with the index-tracking SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:SPY), which gained 16%.