JP Morgan, which has paid out multi-billion settlements to settle wrangles over losses in recent weeks, today announced its net income for the final three months of 2013 was $5.3 billion, down from $5.7 billion a year earlier.

 JP Morgan, which has paid out multi-billion settlements to settle wrangles over losses in recent weeks, today announced its net income for the final three months of 2013 was $5.3 billion, down from $5.7 billion a year earlier.

Revenue for the quarter was $24.1 billion, a dip of 1 per cent compared with the prior year, the bank said in a statement today. Adjusted for the “significant items” disclosed in its latest results, the bank said earnings per share would have been $1.40 this year compared with $1.35 in the prior year. Net income for full-year 2013 was $17.9 billion, compared with $21.3 billion for the prior year.

On the private banking segment, JP Morgan gave relatively few details but said that revenue was $1.6 billion, up 11 per cent compared with the prior year.

"We are pleased to have made progress on our control, regulatory and litigation agendas and to have put some significant issues behind us this quarter. We reached several important resolutions - Global RMBS, Gibbs & Bruns, and Madoff. It was in the best interests of our company and shareholders for us to accept responsibility, resolve these issues and move forward,” Jamie Dimon, chief executive, said in a statement.

As announced last week, the bank agreed to pay $1.7 billion to settle criminal allegations that it did not tell US authorities about suspicious activity from Bernard Madoff. JP Morgan said it filed a Suspicious Activity Report with UK authorities in late October 2008, but did not take a similar step in the US. The bank reportedly knew about Madoff's fraud as early as 1997. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme is considered to be the largest financial fraud in US history, for which he is serving a 150-year prison sentence. The JP Morgan settlement over the Madoff issue followed its agreement to pay a $13 billion settlement with the US Justice Department in November 2013 over the mis-selling of mortgage securities in the period leading up to the credit crunch.

Asset management
For the full year, the asset management side of the business logged net income of $2.0 billion, against $1.7 billion a year earlier; in the fourth quarter, net income was $568 million, an increase of $85 million, or 18 per cent.

Client assets were $2.3 trillion, an increase of $248 billion, or 12 per cent, compared with the prior year. Assets under management were $1.6 trillion, an increase of $172 billion, or 12 per cent, from the prior year, due to net inflows to long-term products and the effect of higher market levels.

Custody, brokerage, administration and deposit balances were $745 billion, up $76 billion, or 11 per cent, from the prior year, due to the effect of higher market levels and custody inflows, partially offset by brokerage outflows.