JPMorgan Chase profits soar 36%

JPMorgan Chase has become the second major US bank to report a big rise in profits for the April to June period.

Net profit for the second quarter totalled $2.72bn (£1.6bn), an increase of 36% on the same period last year.

Revenues at the company rose 41% to a record $27.7bn. Its results come two days after rival Goldman Sachs reported a $3.44bn second quarter profit.

Analysts said the results underscored growing confidence among banks and could signal an end to the crisis.

JP Morgan has repaid in full the $25bn it received as part of the US government's bank bail-out in October last year.

End of crisis?

However, critics have questioned whether banks should be making such juicy profits less than a year after accepting taxpayer's money to stave off potentially devastating losses.

"It was a truly positive surprise which does away with the question whether we actually have reached the end of the crisis"

US banks are not cured yet

Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan's chairman and chief executive, said it was confident it could continue to perform well even if the economic environment deteriorated further.

The bank said its investment banking arm had performed well as increased volatility had boosted trading, helping to offset losses on consumer loans such as mortgages.

"Weak economic conditions and housing price declines continued to drive higher estimated losses for the home equity and mortgage loan portfolios, the bank said.

It set aside $3.9bn to provide for credit losses at its retail operations.

The results were better than many analysts had expected and lifted share prices worldwide.

"It was a truly positive surprise which does away with the question whether we actually have reached the end of the crisis," said Joerg Rahn, chief investment officer, Marcard, Stein & Co, a wealth management firm.

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