NEW YORK — JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Financial Officer Douglas Braunstein told investors that the bank has about $10 billion more to cut from its reserve for bad loans.
The CFO didn't give a time frame for the reduction during JPMorgan's investor day presentation in New York; the reserve was $27.6 billion.
He said the bank's exposure to the financially stressed European countries Greece, Italy, Spain and others declined slightly in the first two months of the year, to $15 billion. But the "risk of loss has declined" with recent measures of European governments and the central bank.
Braunstein said JPMorgan targets a 16% return on tangible common equity — it was 15% in 2011. And he said costs will remain flat this year but the bank will continue to invest in its business. Cost savings will offset those investments, the CFO said.
He reiterated JPMorgan's goal to eventually pay 30% of normalized earnings to shareholders, and said that acquisitions remain unlikely in the current environment of regulatory scrutiny.
