JPMorgan Chase Says it Can Pay Back Treasury

Bank’s profit falls 10 percent

JPMorgan Chase Tower

JPMorgan Chase & Co posted a lower profit this quarter than it did a year ago. Nonetheless, it says it will pay back $25 billion in TARP funds as soon as possible. Though it posted a profit loss, it wasn’t as big a drop as analysts expected.

It’s payback time

So JPM’s bailout funds turned out to be only a short-term loan. That’s fabulous, right? A little snippet from “The Guardian” struck me as a bit odd. CEO Jamie Dimon said he would pay back federal loans “as soon as the government allowed it.”

“We’d like to repay it as soon as possible,” said Dimon. “We’re waiting for guidance from the government of the United States. We want to do what’s in the interests of the U.S. as well as in the interests of JPMorgan.”

After all of the cash advances the government has handed out, I should think they’d send someone over there to pick it up right away.

JPM on the books

JPM pulled in a $2.14 profit in the first quarter of 2009, according to the Wall Street Journal. To prepare for impending mortgage loan modification, it has set aside $4.2 billion to cover future loan losses. Though JPM’s profit fell about 10 percent compared to the same quarter last year, its revenue shot up 48 percent to more than $25 billion. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "JPMorgan Chase Says it Can Pay Back Treasury "