NEW YORK: JPMorgan Chase reported higher third-quarter profits on Wednesday, as the improving economic outlook allowed it to include in earnings $2.1 billion set aside earlier in the pandemic for potential loan defaults.
The big US bank, kicking off the quarterly reporting season for large financial companies, reported profits of $11.7 billion, up 24 per cent from the year-ago period.
Revenues rose one per cent to $29.7 billion.
Besides the boost from lower reserves for bad loans, JPMorgan’s results were lifted by a surge in the financial advisory revenues tied to mergers and acquisition and initial public offerings.
Those gains helped offset a modest decline in revenues tied to trading in the financial markets.
The bank saw a 26 per cent jump in debit and credit card volumes. But firm-wide loan growth was anemic, the latest instance of modest lending that has been seen as due to the availability of the government support programmes during the pandemic.
Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said the bank achieved ‘strong’ results, as the economy continues to demonstrate “good growth, despite the dampening effect of the Delta variant and supply chain disruptions”.
Meanwhile, shares rose 0.3 per cent to $165.77 in pre-market trading.