Companies donated or pledged about $8.2 billion of the $12 billion in total contributions that were earmarked for racial equity — the “first time direct corporate giving to racial equity causes has reached this magnitude” — said Andrew Grabois, Candid’s corporate philanthropy manager. “When George Floyd was killed, consumers and stakeholders called on companies to invest in issues related to racial equity, and many responded,” Grabois said. But traditionally, Grabois noted, large corporations funded mainly educational and cultural groups, while donating comparatively little to racial equity causes. Since late May, Grabois said, financial commitments by companies to racial equity causes have grown “exponentially larger” than any other cause other than COVID-19. At the same time, experts say, there’s no consensus on how to define racial equity giving.

NEW YORK Citigroup announced that Jane Fraser would succeed Michael Corbat as the bank's next chief executive, making Fraser the first woman to ever lead a Wall Street bank. Fraser is currently head of Citi's global consumer banking division, a major part of the bank that includes checking and savings accounts but also Citi's massive credit card business. Fraser will be the first woman to lead one of Wall Street's big six banks. JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon has had women as his second-in-command for years, but shows no signs of stepping down from the CEO role. Corbat turned Citi into a much smaller and stable entity, focusing on its credit card businesses and its international banking franchise.

Thanks largely to the funds set aside for bad loans, JPMorgan's profit fell by half in the April-June quarter, Citigroup's sank about 70% and Wells Fargo reported its first quarterly loss since the financial crisis of 2008. In its second-quarter results, JPMorgan said it set aside $10.5 billion to cover potentially bad loans. Thats on top of the $8.3 billion the bank set aside in April, when the pandemic was only just starting to impact the U.S. economy. Citi, which is heavily exposed in credit cards, set aside an additional $7.9 billion to cover potentially bad loans. Wells Fargo, which did not set aside as much money as its peers in April, had to play catch up this quarter, setting aside $8.4 billion to cover potentially bad loans.

Mario Tama/Getty ImagesNEW YORK - Citigroup kicked off bank earnings season on Monday with solid results that were boosted by a splurge in share buybacks. The stronger-than-expected earnings from Citi suggest America's big banks continued to chug along during the second quarter in the face of a challenging economic and market backdrop. Citi reported $4.8 billion in second-quarter profit, up 7% from the year before, thanks to higher revenue and lower taxes and expenses. Big banks have increasingly relied on share buybacks to pad their bottom lines. But, like most big banks Citi has been hurt by the inversion of the yield curve, the phenomenon in which long-term Treasury rates are lower than short-term ones.