Is It Safe? JPMorgan Card Defaults Grow

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After beating analysts' earnings expectations last week, JPMorgan Chase(JPM Quote) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon vowed to return the $25 billion in government aid the bank had received "as soon as possible."

Dimon should hold on to those funds. The pace of defaults in the company's credit card business, its third-biggest revenue source, rose for the eighth-straight quarter. If the economy weakens further, more of JPMorgan's customers will probably stop paying their bills.

Banks are experiencing record credit card defaults as strapped consumers lose jobs and miss loan payments. The rate of uncollectable accounts is rising across the industry. Competitors Capital One(COF Quote) and Bank of America(BAC Quote) have warned investors that conditions could deteriorate this year.

Investors have turned bullish on finance companies in the past month. JPMorgan shares have jumped 28%, while those of Citigroup(C Quote) and Bank of America gained 12% and 30%, respectively. Standard & Poor's investment bank and brokerage index advanced 19%.

Last week, JPMorgan said its first-quarter net income fell 10% from a year earlier to $2.1 billion, or 40 cents a share. Analysts had forecast the company to earn 32 cents. Revenue jumped 48% to $25 billion.

JPMorgan's credit card unit lost $547 million during the quarter, making it the bigger of two money-losing businesses. The company, which holds 168 million credit cards accounts, became the nation's biggest MasterCard and Visa issuer when it acquired Washington Mutual in the wake of its failure last year.

The company's net charge-off rate, the percentage of credit card accounts considered uncollectable, increased to 7.7% in the first quarter from 4.4% a year ago and 5.6% in the fourth quarter. The bank's charge-off rate has doubled in the past two years from 3.6% as of March 2007.