MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

JPMorgan becomes US largest bank; displaces Citigroup

JPMorgan Chase & Co has become the largest US bank by assets surpassing long-time leader Citigroup Inc. On Thursday Citigroup Inc reported it ended September with 2.05 trillion US dollars of assets, while a day earlier JPMorgan led by Jaime Dimon, said it ended the month with 2.25 trillion US dollars.

JPMorgan vaulted over Citigroup with its 1.9 billion US dollars purchase last September of Washington Mutual Inc., once the US largest savings and loans. JPMorgan is also the largest US bank by market value, followed by Bank of America, Wells Fargo & Co and Citigroup. Citigroup Ander CEO Vikram Pandit is attempting to increase efficiency and cut costs in the bank following losses of more than 20 billion US dollars last year. Bank of America Corp could overtake JPMorgan as the largest bank in the US by assets once it completes the acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co, which is forecasted sometime in the first quarter of next year. Merrill Lynch and Citigroup both reported massive quarterly losses. Merrill, sold to Bank of America in the wake Lehman Brothers' collapse last month, made a loss of 5.15 billion US dollars in the third quarter, the bank's fifth straight quarterly loss. Citigroup reported a net loss of 2.8 billion as it was forced to absorb 4.4 billion in write-downs. This was Citigroup's fourth consecutive loss. Merrill Lynch marked down the value of at least 9.5 billion worth of assets hit by the credit crunch. The bank said a large chunk of these write-downs were related to the "severe market dislocations" in September when US mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were nationalised and Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy.