NEW YORK — After coming in at almost $150 million in net auto loan charge-offs in the fourth quarter of 2009, Chase revealed that during the same time frame in 2010, charge-offs were $71 million.

More specifically, the more recent net charge-off rate is 0.58 percent, compared with 1.30 percent in the same quarter of 2009.

Chase revealed that auto originations for the quarter came in at $4.8 billion, down 19 percent from the prior year, but up 21 percent from the previous quarter. Originations stood at $6.1 billion in the third quarter and $5.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Overall, average auto loans were $48.3 billion, up 7 percent from prior year.

Discussing its Mortgage Banking & Other Consumer Lending division, which includes auto loans, management said this business unit had net income of $577 million, up $311 million, or 117 percent from the previous year.

Net revenue was $2.8 billion, up $1.2 billion, or 74 percent, from the prior year. Mortgage banking net revenue came in at $2 billion, up $1.1 billion.

Meanwhile, the company highlighted that Other Consumer Lending net revenue, which includes auto and student lending, was $827 million, up $45 million, mostly thanks to higher auto loan and lease balances.

Credit costs of $46 million for retail banking, mortgage banking and other consumer lending included a reduction in the allowance for loan losses of $150 million in auto finance, officials said.

As for results for the entire company, Chase reported fourth-quarter net income of $4.8 billion, up 47 percent from $3.3 billion for the same quarter in 2009.

Full-year net income came in at $17.4 billion, up 48 percent from $11.7 billion for 2009. Moreover, earnings per share were $3.96, compared with $2.26.

Commenting on the company's results, Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer, said, "Solid performance in the quarter and for the year reflected good results across most of our businesses, which benefited from strong client relationships and continued investments for growth. Credit trends in our credit card and wholesale business continued to improve. In our mortgage business, while charge-offs and delinquencies have improved, credit costs still remain at abnormally high levels and continue to be a significant drag on our returns.

Furthermore, he said, "We continued to strengthen our fortress balance sheet, ending the year with a strong Tier 1 Common ratio of 9.8 percent. By 2019, banks will be expected to maintain a Tier 1 Common ratio of 7 percent under Basel III — we estimate that our ratio is approximately 7 percent this quarter. "

Firm-wide, he explained that credit reserves dropped to $33 billion, resulting in a coverage ratio of 4.5 percent of total loans.

"We are confident that we have the earnings power to generate substantial capital, well beyond what we will need to prudently grow our business," Dimon stressed.

In conclusion, Dimon said, "Through the outstanding efforts of our 239,000 employees around the world, our firm has come through the worst economic storm in recent history stronger than we have ever been. We never stopped innovating and investing in the products that support and serve our clients and the communities where we do business. Although we continue to face challenges, there are signs of stability and growth returning to both the global capital markets and the U.S. economy. We are well-positioned with the capital strength necessary to make the right investments to take advantage of these opportunities for the benefit of our shareholders."

As an interesting note, the company shared that non-interest expense for the firm was $4.2 billion, up 84 percent from the previous year and 13 percent from the prior quarter.

"This increase from the prior year was driven by higher performance-based compensation expense and other non-compensation expense, including increased litigation reserves," officials said.