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J.P. Morgan faces downgrade
The bank's $42.4B in debt placed under review by Moody's amid Enron questions.
August 21, 2002: 7:36 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Moody's Investors Service Wednesday said it was worried enough about weakening profits at J.P. Morgan Chase to possibly cut the financial services company's debt rating.

Moody's put J.P. Morgan's $42.4 billion in debt under review, saying, "Declining activity in capital markets, restructuring expenses and rising credit losses have all contributed to weak profitability..."

While questioning J.P. Morgan's business strategy, the credit rating agency also said the bank's involvement with Enron may hurt its reputation, subject it to greater regulatory scrutiny and expose it to costly lawsuits.

J.P. Morgan (JPM: Research, Estimates) loaned money to the bankrupt energy trader. Several company officers were called before Congress last month because of their alleged role in helping Enron hide debt.

A downgrade could make it more expensive for J.P. Morgan to borrow money during a time when companies are having a harder time raising funds in the bond market. Standard & Poor's made a similar move last week.

Moody's currently rates the company's senior unsecured debt at "Aa3" and its subordinated debt at "A1."

The credit rating agency also found fault with J.P. Morgan's strategy of combining investment banking and commercial banking, saying "growing J.P. Morgan's market share in equities underwriting and trading may be time consuming and expensive."

J.P. Morgan spokeswoman Kristin Lemkau declined to comment on the Moody's review, according to Reuters.

The Moody's report came after the close of trading. J.P. Morgan shares rose 34 cents to $26.88 in the regular session; they are down 35 percent from their 52-week high.  Top of page




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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.