The paper said JPMorgan is likely to report mark-to-market losses on leveraged loans of about $1.4 billion and an additional $700 million in write-downs of mortgages and mortgage-backed securities.

Bank of America, it said, is expected to write down $700 million in leveraged loans and mortgage loans of $300 million.

Citigroup, the biggest US bank, had already taken a pretax write-down of $1.4 billion as of third quarter-end.

Motgage lender Bear Stearns said it was writing down its $7.6 billion portfolio by about $250 million, or 3.2 per cent. Morgan Stanley wrote down its $31 billion portfolio by $726 million, or 2.3 per cent.

JP Morgan and Bank of American were anxious to make hundreds of millions of dollars on leveraged loans and mortgage-based securities the same as their peers.

Concerns about the big financial institutions should not dissipate with the news. The write-downs may handle current estimates of what some of these loans and financial instruments are worth, but if the private equity environment and housing situations get worse more write-offs could follow.

Meanwhile, Robin Osmond, head of Europen equity markets at JP Morgan has left the bank after one year. Osmond was former head of global investment banking at HSBC.

The US bank appointed Osmond as head of European equity capital markets for corporate clients in June last year and he departed last month, according to the Financial Services Authority register. He is thought to be considering other job offers.

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