JPMorgan reports higher first-quarter profits

By David Henry and Dan Wilchins

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co posted higher first-quarter profits on Friday as the biggest U.S. bank recovered from the "London Whale" trading losses that cut into its earnings last year.

Net income rose to $6.53 billion, or $1.59 a share, from $4.92 billion, or $1.19 a share, a year earlier.

The year-ago results had been reduced by 12 cents a share due to losses from the London Whale credit derivatives trades. Results for both periods included other special items.

The bank's corporate and private equity unit, which housed the group that posted the trading losses, earned $250 million in the first quarter of 2013, compared with a $1.02 billion loss in the same period a year earlier.

But other measures showed a bank under pressure. Revenue fell 4 percent to $25.12 billion, hurt by declining interest income. Ignoring accounting benefits and charges from changes in the value of JPMorgan's debt, corporate and investment banking income fell 2 percent to $2.5 billion.

Income in mortgage banking, which helped boost profits last year, fell in the first quarter to $673 million, from about $980 million last year.

(Reporting by David Henry and Dan Wilchins in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)