REUTERS - JPMorgan Chase & Co , the biggest U.S. bank by assets, reported a rare quarterly loss after incurring $9.2 billion in legal expenses, including money set aside for future settlements.
The bank posted a loss of $380 million, or 17 cents per share, in the third quarter, compared with net income of $5.71 billion, or $1.40 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding litigation expense and reserve release, the company posted a profit of $5.82 billion, or $1.42 per share.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of $1.20 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It was not immediately clear if the results were comparable.
JPMorgan's shares were up 1.9 percent at $53.50 in premarket trading.
The prospect of additional legal expenses have been weighing on JPMorgan and CEO Jamie Dimon for more than a year as the company has come under intense scrutiny from regulators following the disclosure of derivatives loss in May 2012.
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"While we expect our litigation costs should abate and normalize over time, they may continue to be volatile over the next several quarters," Dimon said in a statement.
JPMorgan shares were up 19.45 percent this year through Thursday to $52.52, lagging the 23.44 percent rise in the KBW bank stock index in the same period.
(Reporting by David Henry in New York and Tanya Agrawal in Bangalore)