JPMorgan's Exposure to GM: What You Don't Know

It would be natural to expect JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote) to suffer some serious collateral damage from all the turmoil in the auto industry, but the bank's shareholders don't have a whole lot of information to go on.

General Motors (GM Quote) Monday became the second of the Big Three auto companies to file for bankruptcy this year. Giant suppliers like Delphi and Visteon have also sought protection from creditors, and GM's finance affiliate GMAC has been bailed out by the government.

JPMorgan is widely understood to be one of the biggest lenders to the U.S. auto industry, if not the single biggest. But CEO Jamie Dimon, when asked about the issue on the bank's first quarter conference call, said total losses in a worst-case scenario would be relatively small. ...