"JPMorgan Chase & Co.", the second largest bank in the USA in terms of assets, has seen its profit increase 47% in the last quarter of 2010, due to a cut in reserves.
The bank"s net profit reached 4.83 billion dollars, or 1.12 dollars/share, up from 3.3 billion dollars (74 cents/share during the similar period of 2009). Analysts were expecting a profit of just 1 dollar/share.
The bank had a net profit of 17.4 billion dollars last year, compared to 11.7 billion dollars in 2009.
Sales of "J P Morgan" rose 13% in the last quarter of 2010, to 26.1 billion dollars.
The retail banking division earned $708 million, compared with a $399 million loss a year earlier. The division cut back its provisions by $1.8 billion reduction in provisions to $2.5 billion.
The credit card division earned 1.3 billion dollars, as opposed to the losses of 306 million dollars in the last quarter of 2009. This division reduced its provisions by 3.5 billion dollars, to 671 million dollars. The investment banking division saw its profit drop 21%, to 1.5 billion dollars.
"JPMorgan" is the first major bank in the USA to publish its Q1 2010 earnings.