Shall we call it the bank with the fortress reserves, then? JPMorgan said yesterday that it had amassed $23bn of litigation reserves to guard against an avalanche of legal and regulatory actions. Legal expense was $9.2bn in the third quarter alone. That figure cannot, however, account for the psychological and symbolic impact of the first quarterly loss under Jamie Dimon’s watch.

The bank chief has been resilient in the face of the London whale scandal last year and the string of legal woes that have followed it. The bank could be faced with an $11bn settlement related to pre-crisis mortgage lending practices, including those of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, which it bought in deals encouraged by the US government.

Mr Dimon has become a symbol of executive arrogance, but retains the support of the board (which he chairs, by the way). Shareholders support him too – the loss left the stock flat yesterday. Until now, Mr Dimon could always point to the fact that the bank remained profitable, even through the financial crisis.