JPMorgan's shares have climbed 72 percent since the end of 2008, compared with a 48 percent gain in the KBW Bank Index of 24 U.S. firms. On the day the firm reported its quarterly loss, the stock closed little changed. It has since climbed 3.4 percent. "It looks like they are gradually becoming able to put the past and the crisis behind them," said Craig Pirrong, professor of finance at the University of Houston's Bauer College of Business whose research includes risk management. "It's an expensive history lesson, and they are not out of the woods yet." JPMorgan's push to end the mortgage probes intensified last month after the U.S. Attorney's office in Sacramento, California, told the bank it was preparing to bring a case. Authorities there already had concluded there were civil violations and opened a criminal probe, JPMorgan said in an August regulatory filing.