JPMorgan profits tops target

Source: Exec Digital USA

Date :17/07/2008 05:33:24

US investment bank JPMorgan Chase said today, July 17, that second quarter profits were above analyst’s expectations.

JPMorgan Chase, one of the oldest financial services firms in the world, has revealed that its profits have fallen by 52 percent to US$2 billion in the second quarter.

Despite the fact profits have more than halved, the results are actually above analysts’ expectations.

It was expected that the Wall Street lender would suffer a bigger hit to its bottom line as it counts the cost of rescuing rival, Bear Stearns, earlier this year

JPMorgan has so far posted more than US$10 billion of writedowns and losses on mortgage related assets. However, its asset writedowns are smaller than its rivals.

The bank increased credit reserves by US$1.3 billion to cover bad loans and wrote down the value of leveraged loans and mortgage-related assets by US$1.1 billion.

The acquisition of Bear Stearns resulted in a US$540 million loss.