JPMorgan profit up 67%

JPMorgan Chase & Co, the second-biggest US bank by assets, said profit rose 67 per cent to a second straight record as provisions for bad mortgages and credit-card loans tumbled.

First-quarter net income climbed to $5.56 billion, or $1.28 a share, from $3.33 billion, or 74 cents, in the same period a year earlier and from $4.83 billion, or $1.12, in the fourth quarter, the New York-based company said today in a statement. The results beat the average per-share estimate for adjusted earnings of $1.15 by 26 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Provisions for credit losses dropped 83 per cent to $1.17 billion as defaults and late payments declined. JPMorgan, led by Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, posted a record $17.4 billion in earnings last year, in part by releasing about $7 billion of reserves against bad loans back into income as the US economy improved. Dimon, 55, has said he doesn’t consider reserve releases as “quality” earnings because they don’t represent growth in the bank’s businesses. “This is setting the bar very high for the others, and this major beat of the estimate is going to be tough for others to follow,” Michael Holland, who oversees more than $4 billion as chairman of Holland & Co in New York, said in an interview with Tom Keene on Bloomberg Radio. JPMorgan is the first of the largest US banks to report earnings.