By Tom Bradley

JP Morgan Chase reported its earnings yesterday. The company had a good quarter (US$5.3 billion), although it was down a little from last year due to charges related to legal and regulatory settlements. The Financial Times reported that JPM, "took another $1.1bn charge to top up its legal reserves to cover $2.6bn in settlements for its failure to alert US authorities to Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme."

The FT article also said that JPM's CEO, Jamie Dimon, "declined to say that JPMorgan would be able to deal this year with all its outstanding legal and regulatory investigations, which range from its hiring practices in Asia to an inquiry into possible manipulation of foreign exchange markets."

"I think you've got to take a rain check on that," said Mr Dimon. "Some of those are just beginning. The set of facts on all the banks are different."

Asked whether he had considered resigning in the wake of the deluge of legal issues or faced calls to quit from investors, Mr. Dimon said: "No, no and it's all up to the board."

This is a continuation of the nightmare I posted in October. What is it the board does at JPM? Do they really think their long-term CEO is the one to scrape out all the rot and change the culture? Do they deserve a "rain check"?