JPMorgan chalks up big quarterly loss over $9b legal bill

US bank JPMorgan Chase has reported a rare quarterly loss because of high legal costs, even as its underlying business produced results that beat expectations.

The bank, the nation's largest by assets, reported a net loss of $US380 million ($403 million) on revenues of $US23.12 billion, caused in large part by a $US9.15 billion charge for legal expenses over a series of high-profile regulatory problems.

When the special items were stripped away, the bank earned $US1.42 a share, 21¢ above expectations.

JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon said the results demonstrated "strong underlying performance across the businesses" but that results were "marred by large legal expenses".

"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," Mr Dimon said.

"Our litigation costs should abate and normalise over time but they may continue to be volatile over the next several quarters."

JPMorgan in September signed off on a $US920 million settlement to resolve some civil charges related to the "London whale" debacle, during which the company lost $US6.2 billion in errant and poorly managed trades.