During a conference call with analysts, JPMorgan Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum described the 2026 expense outlook as “meaningful expense growth in both dollar and percentage terms,” where, as detailed in commentary and earnings presentation materials, the firm will boost spending by more than $9 billion this year, to about $105 billion.
A driver of at least part of that spending is the Apple Card transition, which JPMorgan expects to take roughly two years to complete.
CEO Jamie Dimon said during the call that Apple Card is fundamentally different from a traditional co-brand portfolio.
“They actually built a completely different integrated into iOS tech stack,” he said of Apple. “And they did a good job… But we have to integrate that inside our system.”
“We have to rebuild what their tech stack is, embedded into our system,” he added.
If the card had been built on a conventional platform, the transition would be quicker.
“If it was a traditional credit card thing, we could fold it in rather quickly and just put it in our systems,” he said. “But it’s not.”
The result is a rebuild effort that management said will ultimately modernize JPMorgan’s broader card infrastructure.
The financial impact is already visible. The firm recorded a $2.2 billion reserve build tied to the forward purchase commitment for the Apple Card portfolio, per the presentation.
Barnum said rising technology spending is not optional. Addressing questions about expenses, he said the environment is “only getting more competitive,” making it “critical to ensure that we are making the necessary investments to secure our position against both traditional and non-traditional competitors.”
That investment spans AI, payments and blockchain-related capabilities
Dimon pointed to JPMorgan’s work in tokenization and digital infrastructure, saying the firm has been “quite involved in the whole blockchain technology space for some time” and is using those capabilities across the company.
Despite broader concerns about consumer confidence, JPMorgan’s data showed continued strength in spending and credit usage. Barnum said that “consumers and small businesses remain resilient,” adding that trends across income groups remain “largely consistent with historical norms.”
Debit and credit card sales volumes rose 7% year over year in the quarter, a data point management cited as evidence that actual behavior has not deteriorated alongside sentiment measures.
Dimon cautioned analysts against overreacting to sentiment indicators.
“[I]n the short run, call it six months, nine months, even a year, it’s pretty positive,” he said, pointing to employment, income and liquidity as ongoing supports for the economy. “Consumers have money. There are still jobs.”
At the same time, he acknowledged longer-term risks tied to geopolitics and fiscal imbalances, reinforcing why JPMorgan is investing now rather than waiting for perfect clarity.
Management also discussed nonbank financial institution exposure. Barnum said JPMorgan uses a narrower internal definition focused on lending collateralized by underlying loans, which produces a smaller but more precise exposure figure.
Looking at performance, Barnum said loss history has been minimal.
“[S]ince 2018, we’ve only seen one charge-off,” he said, attributing that outcome to structural protections and credit enhancement.
The presentation materials demonstrated that Q4 JPMorgan NBFI exposure was about $160 billion, with a net charge-off rate that stood at about 0.14% at the end of the quarter.
Investors sent the shares 2% lower in early trading Tuesday.
Regulation remains a wildcard, particularly proposals to cap credit card interest rates, as has been proposed by the President Donald Trump administration. Barnum warned that such price controls would not simply compress margins. Management commentary indicated that provisions in the card business would be impacted, and that people would lose access to credit on what Barnum termed “a very, very extensive and broad basis.”
JPMorgan’s earnings call showed that the firm is choosing to invest through uncertainty. The Apple Card integration, AI deployment and payments modernization efforts are costly, but management views them as foundational.
