JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of the biggest US banking groups, has survived the current financial crisis largely unscathed as the company announced better-than-expected first quarter results.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Fang Fang, JPMorgan's China Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, attributed the company's survival primarily to its prudent internal control and risk management mechanism.

Fang said that JPMorgan did not survive the crisis by mere chance. A prudential management strategy with strict risk control is vital to fend off any crisis that may emerge.

The US banking giant announced last week that it earned US$2.14 billion for the January-March period with a record revenue of US$26.9 billion.

Unlike many of its peers in the United States and Europe, JPMorgan has not recorded a group loss in any single quarter since the financial crisis broke out in the summer of 2007, despite some losses at some of its divisions.

What JPMorgan has achieved is widely considered a major operational success as tremendous market volatility and severe global economic downturn has forced numerous U.S. and European banks and other financial institutions to go belly up or ask for government bailout money.

Several months before the US subprime mortgage crisis surfaced in the spring of 2007, JPMorgan had detected accumulated risks associated with subprime mortgage securities and other complex structured financial products as the US housing market bubble started to burst. The company then dumped those risky assets in the second half of 2006.

Referring to this market move, JPMorgan's Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon once said in an open letter to the company's shareholders that JPMorgan had avoided major losses after it shied away from risky structured financial products.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan's solid capital adequacy ratio also played a key role in helping it win clients during the time of crisis, Fang said.

At the end of the first quarter, JPMorgan has a capital adequacy ratio of 11.3 percent. Banking groups are usually considered well capitalized if they have a capital adequacy ratio higher than 8 percent.

Fang said a strong balance sheet boosted the confidence of investors in JPMorgan and helped the company expand its business despite prevailing market disruptions in the financial crisis.

JPMorgan also benefited from some "anti-cyclical" measures, which included setting aside funds in booming business years to cover possible losses in bad years.

Apart from increased financial activities, JPMorgan's strong quarterly performance was boosted by record revenue and profit at its investment banking division, partly due to less severe market competition after the financial crisis took down several big-name US investment banks like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.

The company's investment banking division earned US$1.6 billion in net profits on a revenue of 8.3 billion dollars, both at a record high.

Taking advantage of the changed market landscape, JPMorgan even managed to strengthen its position in the lucrative investment banking business.

The company has now become a leading market player in underwriting stocks and bonds in the first quarter with a total underwriting volume reaching US$167.1 billion, or 9.8 percent of the global market, according to market research company Dealogic.

(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2009)