How Banks Actually Make Money (Explained by a Banker)
Philipp 12:39 Episode 1 of How Money Really Moves
How Banks Actually Make Money (Explained by a Banker)
Net interest margin, fees, and the float. Where a bank's profit really comes from — and why your deposit rate looks the way it does.
Read the written version
How Banks Actually Make Money — And Why Your Advice Isn't Neutral
A bank earns from three things: interest, fees, and trading. At JPMorgan in 2025, $87.0bn of $185.6bn in revenue — 47% — came from something other than interest. Fee income is where the growth is, and it is also the only pillar your product choice feeds directly: the bank earns a multiple more when you buy its active fund than when you buy an ETF. That is not fraud. It is a business model. The word for the gap between what is best for you and what is most profitable for the bank is misalignment, and knowing it exists is financial literacy, not cynicism.
Full article, with the sources and the numbers →
