Banking

The Vault

Where the money comes from — the cheapest funding on earth

The Depositors

Roughly $18T of US bank deposits, a quarter of it sitting with the four banks in the next column and much of it still earning close to nothing. The spread between what banks pay depositors and what they charge borrowers is the industry’s profit engine — and the thing every neobank and stablecoin is trying to steal.

The Big Four

The money-center banks that hold half of America’s deposits

JPM — JPMorgan Chase

The center of the map: the largest bank in America by every measure — deposits, card issuing, investment-banking fees, and profit — with a "fortress balance sheet" that turned every crisis of the last twenty years into a share-gain opportunity, from Bear Stearns and WaMu to First Republic.

Why it matters: The bank everyone else on this map is measured against: the rivals want its wallet share, the rails and card networks want its volume, the shadow banks want its loan book, and the neobanks want its depositors.

Outlook: Record net interest income, the #1 investment-banking wallet share, and a card franchise refreshed by the Sapphire Reserve relaunch. Management keeps guiding conservatively while investing ~$18B a year in technology, launching the JPMD deposit token on public blockchains, and preparing the succession from Jamie Dimon.

market cap $953B · revenue $186B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

BAC — Bank of America

The consumer-deposit giant: ~$2T of deposits, 70M consumer clients, and the Erica AI assistant, run by Brian Moynihan on "responsible growth" — plus the Merrill wealth franchise and a securities book whose rate-driven paper losses defined the stock through the hiking cycle.

market cap $438B · revenue $114B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

WFC — Wells Fargo

The comeback story: the Fed lifted the $1.95T asset cap in June 2025 after seven years of penance for the fake-accounts scandal, freeing Charlie Scharf to grow the balance sheet again, rebuild the card and investment-banking businesses, and chase the returns its deposit franchise always deserved.

market cap $272B · revenue $83B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

C — Citigroup

The global one: Jane Fraser’s multi-year transformation stripped out consumer businesses across a dozen countries, is spinning off Banamex, and is rebuilding around the Services franchise that moves ~$5T a day for multinationals — with Citi Token Services as its bet that tokenized deposits beat stablecoins.

market cap $231B · revenue $82B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

Wall Street

The fee machines — deals, trading, and the wealthy

GS — Goldman Sachs

The purest Wall Street franchise: #1 in M&A advisory most years, a trading floor that prints in volatile markets, and a fast-growing asset and wealth arm — after retreating from consumer banking and handing the Apple Card portfolio to JPMorgan.

market cap $302B · revenue $68B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

MS — Morgan Stanley

The wealth-management machine: E*Trade, Eaton Vance, and a $8T+ client-asset base give it the steadiest fee stream on Wall Street, with the investment bank and trading desk as the cyclical kicker under Ted Pick.

market cap $342B · revenue $78B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

The Card War

The premium-card arms race and the issuer who bought a network

AXP — American Express

The premium-card incumbent and a closed-loop network in one: the 2025 Platinum refresh (and its $895 fee) was the direct answer to JPMorgan’s Sapphire Reserve relaunch — the two are fighting over the same affluent millennial spender with lounges, credits, and ever-higher annual fees.

market cap $220B · revenue $71B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

COF — Capital One

The issuer that bought a network: the $35B Discover acquisition (closed May 2025) made Capital One the largest US card lender and the only bank besides Amex that owns its own payment rails — a direct challenge to Visa and Mastercard as well as to Chase.

market cap $135B · revenue $48B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

The Rails

The toll roads every card swipe runs on

V — Visa

The biggest toll road in finance: Visa runs the network that most US bank cards ride on (JPMorgan is its largest issuer), takes a sliver of every swipe at 50%+ net margins, and is now piloting stablecoin settlement so the rails survive whatever replaces the card.

market cap $700B · revenue $45B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

MA — Mastercard

The other half of the duopoly, with Citi as an anchor issuer and a faster-growing services business (fraud, data, consulting) layered on the network — and the same regulatory targets on its back: interchange caps, the Credit Card Competition Act, and Capital One’s Discover network.

market cap $507B · revenue $35B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

The Shadow Banks

Private credit and stablecoins — lending and dollars outside the perimeter

BX — Blackstone

The largest alternative-asset manager on earth ($1.2T+ AUM) and the face of private credit: its funds now make the leveraged loans, real-estate loans, and asset-backed deals that used to sit on bank balance sheets — with none of the bank capital rules.

market cap $163B · revenue $16B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

APO — Apollo

The most bank-like of the alternatives: Athene’s insurance balance sheet funds a $1T origination machine that lends directly to companies — and the $25B private-credit partnership with Citi shows the banks would rather share the loan than lose it.

market cap $79B · revenue $36B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

CRCL — Circle

Issuer of USDC, the regulated dollar stablecoin: the GENIUS Act (2025) gave stablecoins a federal rulebook, and every dollar parked in USDC is a dollar that isn’t a bank deposit — which is exactly why JPMorgan and Citi are launching tokenized deposits of their own.

market cap $28B · revenue $3B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

The Neobanks

Fee-free, app-first, and coming for the next generation of depositors

SOFI — SoFi

The neobank with a real charter: student-loan refinancing grew into a full digital bank (deposits, cards, investing, crypto) targeting high-earning millennials — the same customer Chase and Amex want — with a loan platform that sells originations to the shadow banks next door.

market cap $24B · revenue $4B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

CHYM — Chime

The fee-free challenger for everyone the big banks charge overdraft fees: a 2025 IPO built on early paycheck access and no-fee checking, running on partner-bank charters and interchange revenue rather than a lending book.

market cap $13B · revenue $3B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

The Referee

Rates, capital rules, and the stress tests that set the rules of the game

The Fed / OCC / CFPB

Sets the rate that sets net interest income, runs the stress tests that set buybacks, and writes the capital rules: the Basel III endgame was gutted, the leverage ratio loosened, Wells Fargo’s asset cap lifted, and the CFPB defanged — the friendliest regulatory backdrop the big banks have had since 2008.

The Borrower

Where the money ultimately comes from

Main Street

Households and businesses paying interest on mortgages, cards, auto loans, and commercial loans — the source of net interest income, the biggest line on every bank income statement on this map.

Wall Street Clients

Corporations, governments, and institutions paying fees for deals, debt and equity issuance, trading, custody, and treasury services — the wallet Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan’s investment bank divide up every year.

Relationships on the map

• The Depositors supplies JPMorgan Chase — ~$2.5T of deposits
  The largest deposit franchise in America — the cheap funding under the fortress balance sheet.
• The Depositors supplies Bank of America — ~$2T of deposits
  The stickiest consumer deposit base in the country, much of it in low-rate checking accounts.
• The Depositors supplies Wells Fargo — ~$1.4T of deposits
  A branch-heavy retail deposit franchise that the asset cap kept from being fully deployed until 2025.
• The Depositors supplies Citigroup — ~$1.3T of deposits
  More institutional and international than the others: corporate operating deposits from the Services franchise.
• JPMorgan Chase competes with Bank of America — The deposit crown
  The two largest consumer banks in America fighting branch by branch for the same deposits, cards, and wealth clients.
• JPMorgan Chase competes with Wells Fargo — Post-asset-cap growth
  With the cap gone, Wells is rebuilding cards and investment banking — the businesses where Chase pulled furthest ahead.
• JPMorgan Chase competes with Citigroup — The global wallet
  Treasury services, trade finance, and cross-border payments for multinationals — Citi’s crown jewel and JPMorgan’s fastest-growing fee line.
• Goldman Sachs competes with JPMorgan Chase — The league tables
  M&A advisory, underwriting, and trading — JPMorgan leads on total fees, Goldman on advisory.
• Goldman Sachs partners with JPMorgan Chase — Apple Card handoff
  Goldman’s retreat from consumer lending ends with JPMorgan taking over the Apple Card program — the biggest co-brand portfolio in the market.
• Morgan Stanley competes with JPMorgan Chase — Wealth & markets
  Morgan Stanley’s wealth machine vs J.P. Morgan’s private bank and self-directed push, plus the two biggest trading floors on the street.
• Goldman Sachs competes with Morgan Stanley — The white-shoe rivalry
  The two surviving pure Wall Street houses, one built on deals and trading, the other on wealth.
• American Express competes with JPMorgan Chase — Sapphire vs Platinum
  The premium-card arms race: Chase Sapphire Reserve and Amex Platinum both relaunched with higher fees and richer perks for the same affluent spender.
• Capital One competes with JPMorgan Chase — #1 vs #2 in cards
  Post-Discover, Capital One is the largest US card lender by loans and Chase the largest by spend — the two poles of the card market.
• Capital One competes with Visa — The Discover network
  Owning Discover lets Capital One route its own cards off Visa and Mastercard — the first credible issuer-owned rail in decades.
• Visa supplies JPMorgan Chase — Card rails
  JPMorgan Chase is Visa’s largest issuer; Chase cards route the bulk of their volume across the Visa network.
• Mastercard supplies Citigroup — Card rails
  Citi is one of Mastercard’s anchor issuers, from Costco to Citi’s own Double Cash and premium cards.
• Visa competes with Mastercard — The duopoly
  Two networks, one business model, and the same regulatory target on their backs.
• Blackstone competes with JPMorgan Chase — Private credit vs the loan book
  Every leveraged loan Blackstone’s funds write is one a bank syndicate didn’t — JPMorgan answered with its own $50B direct-lending program.
• Apollo partners with Citigroup — $25B private-credit pact
  Citi sources the borrowers, Apollo and Athene fund the loans — the template for banks and shadow banks splitting the business instead of fighting over it.
• Circle competes with JPMorgan Chase — Stablecoins vs deposits
  USDC balances are deposits that left the banking system; JPMD, JPMorgan’s tokenized deposit, is the counterattack.
• SoFi competes with JPMorgan Chase — The digital-first customer
  SoFi wants the high-earning young professional Chase spent a decade courting with Sapphire.
• Chime competes with Bank of America — Fee-free checking
  Chime’s no-overdraft pitch targets the mass-market checking customer that Bank of America’s branch network was built on.
• JPMorgan Chase supplies Main Street — Net interest income (~$95B/yr)
  Research estimate: roughly half of JPMorgan’s revenue is the spread earned on loans and securities funded by deposits.
• Bank of America supplies Main Street — Net interest income (~$60B/yr)
  Research estimate: net interest income is the majority of Bank of America’s revenue and the most rate-sensitive line on this map.
• Wells Fargo supplies Main Street — Net interest income (~$48B/yr)
  Research estimate: the spread on a loan book that can finally grow again now that the asset cap is gone.
• JPMorgan Chase supplies Wall Street Clients — Deals, trading & treasury (~$70B/yr)
  Research estimate: the Commercial & Investment Bank — the largest fee and markets franchise on Wall Street.
• Goldman Sachs supplies Wall Street Clients — Advisory & markets (~$45B/yr)
  Research estimate: the bulk of Goldman’s revenue is investment-banking fees and trading with institutional clients.