Top US bank JPMorgan Chase said on Monday it did not require additional capital injections following “stress tests” conducted by the authorities on banks to weather the global financial crisis.
“I don’t think we need to raise capital,” chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon told an analysts’ conference ahead of a government announcement tomorrow on details of the tests conducted on the 19 biggest US banks that have received public aid to weather the global financial crisis.
The tests are being conducted by the Federal Reserve and other regulators at the request of the US Treasury.
Dimon also said that his bank was awaiting regulatory approval to repay US$25 billion in funding from the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program “as soon as the government allowed it.”
JPMorgan Chase, which last month reported a net profit of US$2.1 billion in the first quarter of the year, has emerged as one of the biggest survivors of the banking sector meltdown of last year.
The group reported profit per share of US$0.40, well above the US$0.32 per share expected by analysts.
Revenues jumped 50 percent from a year earlier to US$26.9 billion.
Dimon said then that the company was expanding its lending but also digging in for a possible deepening of the economic crisis by boosting its capital and reserves for potential losses.
“We remain focused on capital and balance sheet strength,” Dimon said at the time.
JPMorgan acquired Wall Street giant Bear Stearns last year as it neared collapse and then scooped up Washington Mutual after the deepening of the financial crisis forced the giant into bankruptcy.
The results of the stress tests of the banks’ capacity to withstand a worsened recession will be published after the stock market closes tomorrow, a government source said last week.
The source said the tests should reveal information about the banks as a group, as well as details on each individual bank.
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