Basis of Presentation

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Basis of Presentation

Basis of presentation

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (“JPMorgan Chase” or the “Firm”), a financial holding company incorporated under Delaware law in 1968, is a leading financial services firm based in the U.S., with operations worldwide. The Firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing and asset management. On May 1, 2023, JPMorgan Chase acquired certain assets and assumed certain liabilities of First Republic Bank (the “First Republic acquisition”) from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”). The Firm continues to convert certain operations, and to integrate clients, products and services associated with the First Republic acquisition, to align with the Firm’s businesses and operations. Accordingly, reporting classification and internal risk rating profiles in the wholesale portfolio may change in future periods. Refer to Note 34 for additional information on the First Republic acquisition.

The accounting and financial reporting policies of JPMorgan Chase and its subsidiaries conform to U.S. GAAP. Additionally, where applicable, the policies conform to the accounting and reporting guidelines prescribed by regulatory authorities.

Consolidation

The Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of JPMorgan Chase and other entities in which the Firm has a controlling financial interest. All material intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated.

Assets held for clients in an agency or fiduciary capacity by the Firm are not assets of JPMorgan Chase and are not included on the Consolidated balance sheets.

The Firm determines whether it has a controlling financial interest in an entity by first evaluating whether the entity is a voting interest entity or a variable interest entity.

Voting interest entities

Voting interest entities are entities that have sufficient equity and provide the equity investors voting rights that enable them to make significant decisions relating to the entity’s operations. For these types of entities, the Firm’s determination of whether it has a controlling interest is primarily based on the amount of voting equity interests held. Entities in which the Firm has a controlling financial interest, through ownership of the majority of the entities’ voting equity interests, or through other contractual rights that give the Firm control, are consolidated by the Firm.

Investments in companies in which the Firm has significant influence over operating and financing decisions (but does not own a majority of the voting equity interests) are accounted for (i) in accordance with the equity method of accounting, or (ii) at fair value if the fair value option was elected. These investments are generally included in other assets, with income or loss included in noninterest revenue.

Certain Firm-sponsored asset management funds are structured as limited partnerships or limited liability companies. For many of these entities, the Firm is the general partner or managing member, but the non-affiliated partners or members have the ability to remove the Firm as the general partner or managing member without cause (i.e., kick-out rights), based on a simple majority vote, or the non-affiliated partners or members have rights to participate in important decisions. Accordingly, the Firm does not consolidate these voting interest entities. However, in the limited cases where the non-managing partners or members do not have substantive kick-out or participating rights, the Firm evaluates the funds as VIEs and consolidates the funds if the Firm is the general partner or managing member and has both power and a potentially significant interest.

The Firm’s investment companies and asset management funds have investments in both publicly-held and privately-held entities, including investments in buyouts, growth equity and venture opportunities. These investments are accounted for under investment company guidelines and, accordingly, irrespective of the percentage of equity ownership interests held, are carried on the Consolidated balance sheets at fair value, and are recorded in other assets, with income or loss included in noninterest revenue. If consolidated, the Firm retains the accounting under such specialized investment company guidelines.

Variable interest entities

VIEs are entities that, by design, either (1) lack sufficient equity to permit the entity to finance its activities without additional subordinated financial support from other parties, or (2) have equity investors that do not have the ability to make significant decisions relating to the entity’s operations through voting rights, or do not have the obligation to absorb the expected losses, or do not have the right to receive the residual returns of the entity.

The most common type of VIE is an SPE. SPEs are commonly used in securitization transactions in order to isolate certain assets and distribute the cash flows from those assets to investors. The basic SPE structure involves a company selling assets to the SPE; the SPE funds the purchase of those assets by issuing securities to investors. The legal documents that govern the transaction specify how the cash earned on the assets must be allocated to the SPE’s investors and other parties that have rights to those cash flows. SPEs are generally structured to insulate investors from claims on the SPE’s assets by creditors of other entities, including the creditors of the seller of the assets.

The primary beneficiary of a VIE (i.e., the party that has a controlling financial interest) is required to consolidate the assets and liabilities of the VIE. The primary beneficiary is the party that has both (1) the power to direct the activities of the VIE that most significantly impact the VIE’s economic performance; and (2) through its interests in the VIE, the

obligation to absorb losses or the right to receive benefits from the VIE that could potentially be significant to the VIE.

To assess whether the Firm has the power to direct the activities of a VIE that most significantly impact the VIE’s economic performance, the Firm considers all the facts and circumstances, including its role in establishing the VIE and its ongoing rights and responsibilities. This assessment includes, first, identifying the activities that most significantly impact the VIE’s economic performance; and second, identifying which party, if any, has power over those activities. In general, the parties that make the most significant decisions affecting the VIE (such as asset managers, collateral managers, servicers, or owners of call options or liquidation rights over the VIE’s assets) or have the right to unilaterally remove those decision-makers are deemed to have the power to direct the activities of a VIE.

To assess whether the Firm has the obligation to absorb losses of the VIE or the right to receive benefits from the VIE that could potentially be significant to the VIE, the Firm considers all of its economic interests, including debt and equity investments, servicing fees, and derivatives or other arrangements deemed to be variable interests in the VIE. This assessment requires that the Firm apply judgment in determining whether these interests, in the aggregate, are considered potentially significant to the VIE. Factors considered in assessing significance include: the design of the VIE, including its capitalization structure; subordination of interests; payment priority; relative share of interests held across various classes within the VIE’s capital structure; and the reasons why the interests are held by the Firm.

The Firm performs on-going reassessments of: (1) whether entities previously evaluated under the majority voting-interest framework have become VIEs, based on certain events, and are therefore subject to the VIE consolidation framework; and (2) whether changes in the facts and circumstances regarding the Firm’s involvement with a VIE cause the Firm’s consolidation conclusion to change.

Refer to Note 14 for further discussion of Firm-sponsored VIEs.

Revenue recognition

Interest income

The Firm recognizes interest income on loans, debt securities, and other debt instruments, generally on a level-yield basis, based on the underlying contractual rate. Refer to Note 7 for further information.

Revenue from contracts with customers

JPMorgan Chase recognizes noninterest revenue from certain contracts with customers, in investment banking fees, deposit-related fees, asset management fees, commissions and other fees, and components of card income, when the Firm’s related performance obligations are satisfied. Refer to Note 6 for further discussion of the Firm’s revenue from contracts with customers.

Principal transactions revenue

JPMorgan Chase carries a portion of its assets and liabilities at fair value. Changes in fair value are reported primarily in principal transactions revenue. Refer to Notes 2 and 3 for further discussion of fair value measurement. Refer to Note 6 for further discussion of principal transactions revenue.

Use of estimates in the preparation of consolidated financial statements

The preparation of the Consolidated Financial Statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, revenue and expense, and disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities. Actual results could be different from these estimates.

Foreign currency translation

JPMorgan Chase revalues assets, liabilities, revenue and expense denominated in non-U.S. currencies into U.S. dollars using applicable exchange rates.

Gains and losses relating to translating functional currency financial statements for U.S. reporting are included in the Consolidated statements of comprehensive income. Gains and losses relating to nonfunctional currency transactions, including non-U.S. operations where the functional currency is the U.S. dollar, are reported in the Consolidated statements of income.

Offsetting assets and liabilities

U.S. GAAP permits entities to present derivative receivables and derivative payables with the same counterparty and the related cash collateral receivables and payables on a net basis on the Consolidated balance sheets when a legally enforceable master netting agreement exists. U.S. GAAP also permits securities sold and purchased under repurchase agreements and securities borrowed or loaned under securities loan agreements to be presented net when specified conditions are met, including the existence of a legally enforceable master netting agreement. The Firm has elected to net such balances where it has determined that the specified conditions are met.

The Firm uses master netting agreements to mitigate counterparty credit risk in certain transactions, including derivative contracts, resale, repurchase, securities borrowed and securities loaned agreements. A master netting agreement is a single agreement with a counterparty that permits multiple transactions governed by that agreement to be terminated or accelerated and settled through a single payment in a single currency in the event of a default (e.g., bankruptcy, failure to make a required payment or securities transfer or deliver collateral or margin when due). Upon the exercise of derivatives termination rights by the non-defaulting party (i) all transactions are terminated, (ii) all transactions are valued and the positive values of “in the money” transactions are netted against the negative values of “out of the money” transactions and (iii) the only remaining payment obligation is of one of the parties to pay the netted termination amount. Upon exercise of default rights under repurchase

agreements and securities loan agreements in general (i) all transactions are terminated and accelerated, (ii) all values of securities or cash held or to be delivered are calculated, and all such sums are netted against each other and (iii) the only remaining payment obligation is of one of the parties to pay the netted termination amount.

Typical master netting agreements for these types of transactions also often contain a collateral/margin agreement that provides for a security interest in, or title transfer of, securities or cash collateral/margin to the party that has the right to demand margin (the “demanding party”). The collateral/margin agreement typically requires a party to transfer collateral/margin to the demanding party with a value equal to the amount of the margin deficit on a net basis across all transactions governed by the master netting agreement, less any threshold. The collateral/margin agreement grants to the demanding party, upon default by the counterparty, the right to set-off any amounts payable by the counterparty against any posted collateral or the cash equivalent of any posted collateral/margin. It also grants to the demanding party the right to liquidate collateral/margin and to apply the proceeds to an amount payable by the counterparty.

Refer to Note 5 for further discussion of the Firm’s derivative instruments. Refer to Note 11 for further discussion of the Firm’s securities financing agreements.

Statements of cash flows

For JPMorgan Chase’s Consolidated statements of cash flows, cash is defined as those amounts included in cash and due from banks and deposits with banks on the Consolidated balance sheets.

Accounting standards adopted January 1, 2023

Derivatives and Hedging: Fair Value Hedging – Portfolio Layer Method

The adoption of this guidance expanded the ability to hedge a portfolio of fixed-rate assets to allow more types of assets to be included in the portfolio, and to allow more of the portfolio to be hedged. This guidance also clarified the types of derivatives that could be used as hedges, and the balance sheet presentation and disclosure requirements for the hedge accounting adjustments. As permitted by the guidance, the Firm elected to transfer HTM securities to AFS and designated those securities in a portfolio layer method hedge upon adoption. The adoption impact of the transfer on retained earnings was not material.

Refer to Note 5 and Note 10 for additional information.

Financial Instruments – Credit Losses: Troubled Debt Restructurings (“TDRs”)

The adoption of this guidance eliminated the accounting and disclosure requirements for TDRs, including the requirement to measure the allowance using a discounted cash flow (“DCF”) methodology, and allowed the option of a non-DCF portfolio-based approach for modified loans to troubled borrowers. If a DCF methodology is still applied for these modified loans, the discount rate must be the post-modification effective interest rate, instead of the pre-modification effective interest rate.

The Firm elected to apply its non-DCF, portfolio-based allowance approach for modified loans to troubled borrowers for all portfolios except collateral-dependent loans and nonaccrual risk-rated loans which the Firm elected to continue applying a DCF methodology. Refer to Note 13 for a description of the portfolio-based allowance approach and the asset-specific allowance approach.

This guidance was adopted on January 1, 2023 under the modified retrospective method which resulted in a net decrease to the allowance for credit losses of $587 million and an increase to retained earnings of $446 million, after-tax, predominantly driven by residential real estate and credit card.

The adoption of this guidance eliminated the disclosure requirements for TDRs including the requirement to assess whether a modification is reasonably expected or involves a concession. The new guidance requires disclosure for loan modifications to borrowers experiencing financial difficulty consisting of principal forgiveness, interest rate reduction, other-than-insignificant payment delay, term extension or a combination of these modifications. The Firm has defined these types of modifications as financial difficulty modifications ("FDMs"). As a result of the elimination of the requirement to assess whether a modification is reasonably expected or involves a concession, the population of loans considered FDMs differs from those previously considered TDRs. This guidance also requires disclosure of current period gross charge-offs by vintage origination year.

Refer to Note 12 for further information.

Significant accounting policies

The following table identifies JPMorgan Chase’s other significant accounting policies and the Note and page where a detailed description of each policy can be found.

Fair value measurement	Note 2	page 175
Fair value option	Note 3	page 197
Derivative instruments	Note 5	page 203
Noninterest revenue and noninterest expense	Note 6	page 217
Interest income and Interest expense	Note 7	page 221
Pension and other postretirement employee benefit plans	Note 8	page 222
Employee share-based incentives	Note 9	page 225
Investment securities	Note 10	page 227
Securities financing activities	Note 11	page 232
Loans	Note 12	page 235
Allowance for credit losses	Note 13	page 255
Variable interest entities	Note 14	page 261
Goodwill, mortgage servicing rights, and other intangible assets	Note 15	page 269
Premises and equipment	Note 16	page 274
Leases	Note 18	page 275
Accounts payable & other liabilities	Note 19	page 277
Long-term debt	Note 20	page 278
Earnings per share	Note 23	page 283
Income taxes	Note 25	page 285
Off–balance sheet lending-related financial instruments, guarantees and other commitments	Note 28	page 291
Litigation	Note 30	page 298