New York  -  US banking group JP Morgan Chase reported Wednesday that its net income fell some 50 per cent to 2.37 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2008, reflecting the ongoing turmoil in US financial markets brought on by the subprime mortgage crisis.

But the results, compared with record 4.8 billion dollars net income in the first quarter of 2007, compare favourably with those of other competitors with the bank saying its capital remained strong at 89.6 billion dollars and that credit reserves rose by 2.5 billion dollars.

JP Morgan said its investment-banking division had to write off 2.6 billion dollars. It also said it expected the credit crunch to weigh on its business at least through the rest of the year.

Company chairman and chief executive officer Jamie Dimon commented, "Our expectation is for the economic environment to continue to be weak and for the capital markets to remain under stress.

"These factors have affected, and are likely to continue to negatively impact, our firm's credit losses, overall business volumes and earnings - possibly through the remainder of the year, or longer," he added. (dpa)