While the parent firm suffered a loss, JP Morgan's private bank logged a rise in revenues in the third quarter of 2013.

Revenue from private banking JP Morgan was $1.5 billion in the third quarter of 2013, up 9 per cent year-on-year, but unchanged since the second quarter.

Assets under management ended the third quarter at $1.5 trillion, an increase of $159 billion (12 per cent) from a year earlier, but like private banking revenue, unchanged since Q2. The year-on-year increase was due to net inflows to long-term products and the effect of higher market levels, JP Morgan has reported.

Custody, brokerage, administration and deposit balances were $706 billion, up 9 per cent over the year, due to the effect of higher market levels and custody inflows.

The news about the private bank's earnings come in contrast to the fortunes of the parent firm, hit by heavy fines over its handling of a large loss incurred in London last year. However, the performance of the private bank will be a bright spot for a bank that won WealthBriefingAsia's top award in the Asian wealth management awards held in Singapore in June this year.

Among other figures, the bank said non-interest expense within the asset management division was $2 billion, an increase of $272 million, or 16 per cent, from the prior year. This was primarily due to higher headcount-related expenses, higher performance-based compensation and costs related to the control agenda, the firm said. The provision for credit losses, meanwhile, was “negligible” compared with $14 million in Q3 2012.

Private equity reported net income of $242 million, compared with a net loss of $89 million in the prior year. Net revenue was $398 million, compared with a loss of $135 million in the prior year. The latter was primarily due to net valuation gains on private investments.

Chase Private Client locations totaled 1,948, an increase of 988 from the prior year and 257 from the prior quarter.

Loss

For the group as a whole, JP Morgan Chase & Co reported net loss of $0.4 billion for the third quarter of 2013, compared with net income of $5.7 billion in Q3 2012.

“While we had strong underlying performance across the businesses, unfortunately, the quarter was marred by large legal expense. We continuously evaluate our legal reserves, but in this highly charged and unpredictable environment, with escalating demands and penalties from multiple government agencies, we thought it was prudent to significantly strengthen them. While we expect our litigation costs should abate and normalize over time, they may continue to be volatile over the next several quarters,” said JP Morgan chairman and chief executive, Jamie Dimon.

This third quarter, regulators fined JP Morgan a total of $920 million for “serious failings” relating to trades carried out by the firm’s chief investment office and disclosed last year.

The bank last month agreed to settle actions brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, who imposed a financial penalty of $200 million and required the firm to admit wrongdoing; the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, who imposed a financial penalty of $300 million, and the Federal Reserve, who imposed a financial penalty of $200 million. In addition, the UK Financial Conduct Authority fined the bank $220 million.