JPMorgan Posts $19B Annual Profit Despite Housing Hangover

JPMorgan Chase kicked off the earnings reporting season for major U.S. lenders on Friday with its announcement that the company earned a record profit of $19 billion for the 2011 fiscal year. That compares with $17.4 billion in net income for the prior year. Earnings per share were $4.48 for 2011.

The company reported net income of $3.7 billion for the fourth quarter of 2011, compared with $4.8 billion for the fourth quarter of 2010.
Although the numbers paint a picture of a company in full recovery mode from the financial crisis and recession, JPMorgan’s latest results missed analysts’ expectations as
the company continues to struggle with legacy issues stemming from the housing downturn.
Mortgage net charge-offs and delinquencies modestly improved over the final quarter of 2011, but both remained at elevated levels, the New York-based lender noted in its earnings report.
JPMorgan’s total nonperforming assets declined by 33 percent compared to a year earlier, but legal wranglings involving mortgages and investors’ repurchase demands cut heavily into the company’s profits.
The company doled out more than $3 billion in 2011 to cover legal proceedings related to its mortgage business. That tally marks a decline from the $5.7 billion that was laid down in 2010 but still represents a hefty sum of what could have gone to boosting the bottom line.
CEO Jamie Dimon says the company set aside $528 million in the final quarter of last year alone to address mortgage-related legal issues.
The handling of foreclosures and defaulted mortgages also carried a steep price tag. In the fourth quarter, JPMorgan’s cost related to this part of the business added up to $925 million.
“There’s still a huge drag [from housing issues],” CEO Jamie Dimon told investors. “You’re talking about several billion dollars a year in mortgage [operations] alone.”