NEW YORK: JPMorgan Chase said Tuesday it returned to profits in the third quarter after being saddled with huge legal costs that resulted in a loss in the year-ago period.
The US banking giant posted profits of $5.57 billion, equivalent to $1.36 per share, the bank said in a statement online, an hour before it had been scheduled to release its quarterly earnings report.
The earnings were scheduled to be released at 1100 GMT. But the figures surfaced on the Internet hours before that on a third-party website, the Wall Street Journal reported.
JPMorgan spokesman Joe Evangelisti had no immediate comment on the early release of earnings.
He said the bank would release the report at the scheduled time.
The earnings come as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies continue to investigate a huge hacking breach at JPMorgan, the largest US bank by assets.
JPMorgan has said hackers accessed information on about 76 million households and seven million businesses.
But the bank has said there is no evidence of fraud resulting from the security breach.
JPMorgan lost $380 million in the year-ago period as it faced a battery of charges to settle lawsuits on its preparation of mortgage-backed securities ahead of the housing bust and a host of other controversies.
In the third quarter, revenues rose to $24.2 billion from $23.12 billion reported last year, slightly above the $24.01 billion projected by analysts. (AFP)
