The largest US bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, set a
record for quarterly earnings in the first quarter amid a recovery in
the US housing market and a flourishing investment banking sector.
Earnings rose 33 per cent over the same quarter a year earlier to
6.5 billion dollars, the bank said Friday in New York. Revenues sank
3 per cent to 25.8 billion dollars.
Earnings were bolstered as chief executive Jamie Dimon shrank
expenses 16 per cent while figures in the first quarter of 2012 had
been damaged by a scandal surrounding high-risk derivatives trading
in the firm's London offices that cost the bank 6.2 billion dollars
in 2012.
Despite the scandal, JPMorgan Chase saw a record 21.3 billion
dollars in profit last year.
