JPMorgan profit soars 42% after bank frees up reserves for bad loans

JPMorgan Chase & Co. posted its highest quarterly profit on record after releasing $ 2.9 billion in funds it had set aside to cover degraded loans.

The bank’s profit jumped 42% to $ 12.14 billion, or $ 3.79 per share, well above the $ 2.62 per share forecast by analysts polled by FactSet. A year earlier, JPMorgan had reported quarterly profit of $ 8.52 billion, or $ 2.57 per share.

The nation’s largest bank reported revenue of $ 29.22 billion for the quarter, up 3% from a year earlier and beating analysts’ expectations of $ 28.67 billion.

For the full year, thanks to an economic spiral and uneven recovery, JPMorgan achieved record revenue of $ 119.54 billion, up 4% from 2019. Growth was fueled by the Wall Street operation, which generated stocks and bonds for clients eager to raise capital and trade in securities in a volatile economy and record markets.

Yet the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on businesses and consumers forced the bank to set aside billions of dollars for potential loan losses earlier in the year. Annual profit fell 20% to $ 29.13 billion.