|
The bank's net income rose to $5.91 billion, or
$1.45 per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $5.27
billion, or $1.28 per share, a year earlier.
The results for the latest quarter included an after-tax charge
of $487 million for legal expenses.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of $1.40 per share,
according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It was not immediately
clear if the results reported were comparable.
JPMorgan shares rose about 2 percent to $63.15 in premarket
trading on Tuesday.
Revenue from fixed-income trading rose 5 percent to $4.07
billion, adjusted for the sale of businesses last year,
including a physical commodities operation.
JPMorgan's investment bank is the biggest in the world by
revenue and ranks at or near the top in market share in almost
all of its business lines, according to research firm Coalition.
But the unit is under pressure to cut costs because customers
have reduced their trading since the financial crisis and
regulators have demanded that big banks take fewer risks, hold
more capital and improve controls.
JPMorgan is the first of the large U.S. banks to report
quarterly results. Overall, results are expected to show that
low interest rates have continued to hold down profits as
consumers and businesses refinance loans at lower rates.
Trading picked up early in the quarter after the Swiss National
Bank shocked currency markets by scrapping a three-year-old cap
on the Swiss franc without warning, causing the currency to soar
against the euro.
Non-interest expenses in the bank's investment banking division
rose to $5.66 billion from $5.60 billion.
Company-wide expenses, adjusted for legal costs, fell by $402
million to $14.2 billion.
JPMorgan has said it wants to cut annual expenses in its
investment bank by $2.8 billion by 2017, excluding legal costs,
though some of the savings are expected to be offset by more
spending to improve risk controls.
(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal and David Henry in New York; Editing
by Ted Kerr)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
