JP. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) reported Thursday that its second-quarter profit climbed 13% to $5.43 billion, or $1.27 a share, compared to $4.8 billion, or $1.09 a share, in the year-ago period. The latest period included a net 7 cent charge, due in part to costs of foreclosure-related matters. The prior-year period included a net benefit of 12 cents related to a reduction in loan-loss reserves. Revenue on a managed basis, which excludes the impact of credit-card securitizations and is on a tax-equivalent basis, rose 7% to $27.41 billion. Analysts, on average, expected the company to report earnings of $1.22 per share on revenue of $25.22 billion.
Jamie Dimon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented: "Our second-quarter earnings reflected solid performance across most of our businesses. The Investment Bank delivered strong earnings across most products and maintained its #1 ranking in Global Investment Banking Fees. Commercial Banking reported record revenue and continued loan growth for the quarter. Retail Financial Services demonstrated good underlying performance in Retail Banking but continued to experience high losses for mortgage-related issues."
ommenting on the Firm's balance sheet, Dimon said: "We maintained our fortress balance sheet, ending the second quarter with a Basel I Tier 1 Common ratio of 10.1%. Our strong and growing capital base enabled us to buy back $3.5 billion of stock during the second quarter, and we will continue to buy back stock opportunistically. We estimate that our Basel III Tier 1 Common ratio was approximately 7.6% at the end of the second quarter. This level is well in excess of what is required today under existing rules and is greater than the level we expect will be required under the proposed rules for up to five years, including the additional buffer for global systemically important financial institutions. Our strong capital position and significant earnings power will allow us to actively grow our business and rapidly meet any proposed Basel III requirements as they are phased in. We intend to keep our capital ratios approximately where they are as we do not see a need to manage to higher ratios ahead of time."
Full Disclosure: None.
