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This bonanza is a victory for those who spent the past decade attempting to make banks safer. In the past investment-bank earnings were more tied to the economy, thanks to fat portfolios of assets like mortgage-backed securities. Now banks must hold so much capital against volatile assets that they do not bother. When markets whipsawed last year they earned the upside (bumper trading revenues) without the downside (losses on volatile assets).
对于那些在过去10年里试图让银行变得更安全的人来说，这一大笔财富是一个胜利。过去，由于抵押贷款支持证券等资产组合丰厚，投资银行的收益更多地与经济挂钩。现在，银行必须为不稳定资产持有如此之多的资本，以至于他们都懒得费心了。去年，当市场剧烈震荡时，他们获得了上行(丰厚的交易收入)而没有下跌(波动性资产的损失)。
But this earnings season has also revealed how sensible rules can go awry in bizarre times. Banks are usually keen to amass customer deposits. They are cheap sources of funding; the more deposits a bank holds, the more it can lend. Over the past year, monetary easing by the Federal Reserve has injected vast amounts of cash into the banking system and led deposits to balloon. In 2020 an additional $580bn or so piled up at JPMorgan, and $360bn at Bank of America. On one earnings call an analyst called these deposit mountains an "embarrassment of money for the industry".
但这个财报季也揭示出，合理的规则在奇怪的时候可能会出差错。银行通常热衷于积累客户存款。它们是廉价的资金来源，银行持有的存款越多，它能放的贷也就越多。过去一年，美国联邦储备委员会放松货币政策，向银行体系注入了大量现金，导致存款激增。到2020年，摩根大通和美国银行分别又累积了约5800亿美元和3600亿美元。在一次收益电话会议上，一位分析师称这些巨额存款“令整个行业感到尴尬”。
Yet post-financial-crisis rules make this cash pile a problem, not a victory. Big banks face high capital requirements if they grow too large. The penalties would be worthwhile if there were enough profitable opportunities. But loan demand has been low. System-wide loan-to-deposit ratios have plummeted, from 94% in 2008 to 64% last year. The result is that some banks are attempting to shoo away deposits. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's boss, told investors that the bank had asked some of its big corporate customers to move their cash, reducing the deposit base by $200bn. The firm may "shy away from taking new deposits", said Jennifer Piepszak, its chief financial officer. The covid-19 crisis has shown the resilience of the financial system. But it has also revealed its oddities.
然而，金融危机后的规则让这些现金成为了一个问题，而不是胜利。如果大银行发展得太大，它们将面临很高的资本要求。如果有足够多的盈利机会，这些惩罚是值得的。但贷款需求一直很低。整个系统的贷存比大幅下降，从2008年的94%降至去年的64%。其结果是，一些银行正试图赶走存款。摩根大通老板杰米·戴蒙告诉投资者，该行已要求一些大企业客户转移现金，使存款基础减少2000亿美元。该公司的首席财务官詹尼弗·彼得扎克说，该公司可能“回避接受新的存款”。新冠危机显示了金融体系的韧性，但也暴露了它的奇怪之处。
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