Sources told Reuters that JPMorgan Chase & Co may not yet be able to convince the government to finish its criminal investigations of the bank. They said that the prosecutors did not want to conclude the probe because they were not yet sure of their findings.

JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon had tentatively offered USD 13 billion to settle the investigations on its mortgage bonds and the lenders it acquired at the height of the financial crisis. However, the sources said the criminal investigations would make settlement difficult. The criminal probe had to do with whether JPMorgan misrepresented the quality of the mortgage bonds it was selling to investors.

According to a Reuters report, Dimon had already suspected that the criminal probe would not finish anytime soon. The bank was not also intent on waiting for a conclusion on those investigations before proceeding with its other settlements, according to one of the sources. This was because civil cases would usually finished much more quickly than criminal proceedings.