By Elizabeth Dilts Marshall

NEW YORK (Reuters] – The wealth management business of the big U.S. banks put out another impressive quarter. It was buoyed both by record flows of capital into their accounts, and a growing demand for clients to lend against their investment portfolios.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:) Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:), Bank of America Corp (NYSE:) each reported double-digit growth in wealth management loan balances and revenues this week.

Although the COVID-19 epidemic devastated large swathes of society and left millions of people without work, government extraordinary measures to mitigate the economic impact have helped boost the wealth of those who are able. They have driven a huge stock market rally and lowered interest rates.

A June report from Boston Consulting Group revealed that global financial wealth reached an all-time high of $250 trillion by 2020.

It has increased customer demand for money managers and increased the asset value managed by these brokerages. This makes it easier for customers borrow.

Devin Ryan of JMP Securities said that “lending products for high net worth individuals have been quite healthy.”

Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Management business saw revenues of $5.935 Billion, up 28% from the previous year. The wealth management loan balances reached $121 million, an increase of 33% from last year. This was mainly due to clients borrowing and taking out mortgages.

The growing area of wealth management brokerage lending is securities-based loans. These lines of credit allow clients to borrow up a percentage of their investments to purchase securities. The value of these investment accounts has increased, and so have the loans.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch Wealth Management posted record revenue of $4.5 Billion, an increase of 19% over the previous year. Loan balances increased 10% to $133 Billion.

JPMorgan’s wealth and asset management business brought in 21% more revenue to $4.3 billion while the average loan rose by 20%.

JPMorgan and Bank of America stated that the principal driver of loan growth is securities based loans. Mortgages are second.

Morgan Stanley’s wealth management business, which generates around half its revenue, saw net assets rise by 89% to $135billion in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter. This was due to Morgan Stanley’s acquisition of four retirement advisors, which brought in $43billion in fee-based assets.

Bank of America stated that over the past 12 months, its net new assets have surpassed $112 billion across its global wealth management division.

Merrill Lynch has also created 4,200 new net households, the bank stated.

JPMorgan’s wealth management and asset business does not include net new assets.