JPMorgan Chase & Co, the third-largest US bank, said today quarterly earnings rose 68 per cent from a big surge in investment banking revenue and a $622 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 $4.5 billion, or $1.26 a share, up from $2.7 billion, or 76 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.
Prudential Equity Group analyst Michael Mayo said JPMorgan's results look like a tale of two banks, with strong results from investment banking, private equity and asset management.
Investment banking revenue surged 48 per cent to $4.72 billion, and net income from that activity rose 51 per cent to $1 billion. That led to big-ticket pay at the bank, where compensation expense rose to $1.9 billion, compared with the year-ago level of $1.1 billion.
Going into 2007, the company's pipeline for mergers and acquisitions looks pretty strong across the board, chief financial Officer Mike Cavanagh said during a conference call with reporters.
The New York-based bank also saw across-the-board gains in advisory, loan syndication and bond underwriting fees. Those increases drove total net revenue to $16.1 billion, up from $14.8 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan's various operating segments reported 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 $262 million.
In contrast, the bank's credit card unit saw its provision for credit losses fall 43 per cent to $1.3 billion because of significantly lower bankruptcy filings, JPMorgan said.
Despite a cooling trend in housing sales, JPMorgan's mortgage loan originations were up 9 per cent from the previous quarter at $31 billion.
JPMorgan's asset management business generated a 19 per cent gain in net income as assets under supervision rose 17 per cent to $1.3 trillion.