JPMorgan Chase Reports $380 Million Loss On Legal Expenses

@AFP

New York City (AFP) – U.S. banking giant JPMorgan Chase on Friday reported a rare quarterly loss due to high legal costs, even as its underlying business produced results that bested expectations.

The bank, the nation’s largest by assets, reported a net loss of $380 million on revenues of $23.12 billion, due in large part to a $9.15 billion charge for legal expenses following a series of high-profile regulatory problems.

However, when the special items were stripped away, the bank earned $1.42 per share, 21 cents above expectations.

JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon said the results demonstrated “strong underlying performance across the businesses” but that results were “marred by large legal expenses.”

“We continuously evaluate our legal reserves, but in this highly charged and unpredictable environment, with escalating demands and penalties from multiple government agencies, we thought it was prudent to significantly strengthen them,” Dimon said.

“While we expect our litigation costs should abate and normalize over time, they may continue to be volatile over the next several quarters.”

JPMorgan in September signed off on a $920 million settlement to resolve some civil charges related to the “London whale” debacle, during which the company lost $6.2 billion in errant and poorly-managed trades.

The bank in July also agreed to pay $410 million in penalties to resolve charges it manipulated some US electricity markets.

However, regulators continue to probe both of these cases. Moreover, the bank is in talks with the Justice Department over a large settlement related to its sale of mortgage-backed securities ahead of the housing bust. The housing settlement could reach $11 billion or more.

The quarterly loss Friday compared to a profit of $5.71 billion in the year-ago period on revenues of $25.15 billion.

Advertising

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

Moms For Libertine! And Why We Will Never Run Out Of Pious Frauds

Bridget Ziegler

It’s gotten to where it’s almost axiomatic in American politics: Show me somebody who gets TV face-time railing against others’ sexual sins, and I’ll show you somebody hiding naughty secrets. The latest example is an amusing scandal involving “Moms for Liberty,” the Florida-based right-wing organization that made its name by publicizing what this column described as “queers under the bed and the preposterous idea that the nation’s public-school librarians and grade-school teachers are plotting the sexual subversion of small children.”

Keep reading...Show less
Donald Trump
Photo by The White House

The latest ad from The Lincoln Project is titled “Feeble,” and it strings together a collection of Donald Trump’s “greatest hits” when it comes to stumbling over words, lurching around the podium, and repeatedly forgetting that Barack Obama is no longer president. While showcasing Trump’s two-handed efforts to sip from a water bottle and his running into the backdrop of a rally stage, the narrator asks questions like “Are you sure you don’t have dementia?” She also whispers that “[i]t runs in the family.”

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}