JPMorgan's earnings up sharply
April 12, 2013
The biggest lender in the US announced Friday its 2013 first-quarter profit amounted to $6.5 billion (five billion euros) on revenues of over $25 billion, compared with earnings of $4.9 billion over the same period a year earlier.
"We're seeing positive signs that the economy is healthy and getting stronger," JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said in a statement.
He said bottom-line earnings were helped by a 16-percent drop in non-interest expenses, pointing above all to a significant reduction in litigation costs of just $0.3 billion, down from $2.7 billion a year ago.
Market confidence returning slowly
JPMorgan showed a strong performance in corporate and investment banking as well as asset management, but conceded its consumer and community banking dropped by 12 percent year-on-year.
Dimon pointed to the ongoing hesitancy of small businesses towards large-scale investments. "They remain cautious about the recovery and fiscal uncertainty and are not investing their capital," he maintained.
The US lender promised to live up to a Federal Reserve request to boost its capital planning requirements and work with regulators to improve compliance. JPMorgan had come in for massive criticism after the bank lost $6.2 billion in trading. A congressional investigation showed officials from the lender ignored early signs of problems and kept regulators in the dark.
hg/jr (AFP, dpa)