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JPMorgan Chase, the third-largest US bank, said quarterly earnings rose 68 per cent from a big surge in investment banking revenue and a US$622 million ($895 million) gain from exiting its corporate trust business.
JPMorgan, which also got a boost from an increase in debt financing deals, reported fourth-quarter net income of US$4.5 billion, or US$1.26 a share, up from US$2.7 billion, or US76c a share, in the year-earlier period.
Analysts, on average, had been looking for earnings of US94c a share, excluding one-time items. JPMorgan's results also included US$359 million in benefits related to resolutions of tax audit issues.
Investment banking revenue surged 48 per cent to US$4.72 billion, and net income from that activity rose 51 per cent to US$1 billion. That led to big-ticket pay at the bank, where its compensation expense rose to US$1.9 billion, compared with the year-ago level of US$1.1 billion.
The New York-based bank also saw gains in advisory, loan syndication and bond underwriting fees.
Those increases drove total net revenue to US$16.1 billion, up from US$14.8 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan's operating segments had mixed results on credit quality. The provision for credit losses at its retail finance division, which includes home equity and car loans, rose 66 per cent to US$262 million.
In contrast, the bank's credit card unit saw its provision for credit losses fall 43 per cent to US$1.3 billion because of significantly lower bankruptcy filings.
JPMorgan shares have risen 20 per cent in the past year to around US$49, outperforming the Dow Jones US Banks index by 8 per cent.
- REUTERS
