JPMorgan’s Dimon Posts First Loss on $7.2 Billion Legal Cost!!

JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported its first loss under Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon after taking a $7.2 billion charge to cover the cost of mounting litigation and regulatory probes.

The third-quarter loss was $380 million, or 17 cents a share, compared with a profit of $5.71 billion, or $1.40, a year earlier, the New York-based company said today in a statement. The last time the bank failed to report a profit was the second quarter of 2004, when William Harrison was CEO.

“Over the last few weeks the environment has become highly charged and very volatile,” Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake said on a conference call. “Things have been very fluid and the situation escalated to the point where we are facing very large premiums and penalties, the level of which have gone far beyond what we reasonably expected.”

Dimon, 57, who led JPMorgan to record earnings in each of the past three years, is grappling with regulatory investigations and tightening internal controls following a trading loss last year of more than $6.2 billion. The legal costs contributed to a 54 percent surge in non-interest expenses to $23.6 billion, as revenue dropped 8 percent from a year earlier.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-11/jpmorgan-reports-380-million-third-quarter-loss-on-legal-costs.html