JPMorgan told to fix poor risk management tied to $6-billion loss









JPMorgan Chase & Co. has been ordered to take steps to correct poor risk management that led to a surprise trading loss last year of more than $6 billion.

Federal regulators also cited JPMorgan for lapses in oversight that allowed the bank to be used for money laundering.

JPMorgan, the nation's largest bank by assets, will not pay a fine under the agreements with the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, a Treasury Department agency. The bank promised to strengthen its policies and procedures to control risk and to screen customers to prevent money laundering.








The regulators each issued two cease-and-desist orders against JPMorgan, a sanction that requires a bank to change its practices. They said they had found "deficiencies" in the bank's procedures to prevent money laundering, and "unsafe or unsound practices" regarding management of risk. The order said the regulators and other government agencies could pursue further action.

The regulators said the bank had committed to take "all necessary and appropriate steps" to correct the problems.

JPMorgan neither admitted nor denied the regulators' findings in agreeing to the accords.

"We've been working hard to fully remediate the issues" related to risk management, JPMorgan spokesman Mark Kornblau said Monday. He added that the bank had also made preventing money laundering a "top priority."

JPMorgan disclosed in May that its London office lost billions of dollars in trades designed to hedge against risk. The bank later said some traders had tried to hide the size of the losses.

The loss, which occurred less than four years after the 2008 financial crisis, hurt the bank's reputation. JPMorgan had survived the crisis by taking fewer risks than its competitors.

JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon acknowledged before congressional lawmakers in June that the bank made mistakes but defended its strategy for managing risk.

Still, JPMorgan took action against several employees at the heart of the controversy. Two senior managers and the trader linked to the London trading operation were fired. The bank took back nearly two years' compensation from them.

In addition to the firings, Ina Drew, JPMorgan's chief investment officer overseeing its trading strategy, retired after 30 years at the bank and voluntarily repaid two years of salary.

The bank also made a broad reshuffle of its top management, in an apparent bid to restore investors' trust.

The second action announced Monday against JPMorgan was related to money-laundering controls. The accord did not cite any specific case, but the agreement reached was similar to one Citibank struck with regulators in April.

JPMorgan was cited for poorly monitoring potential money laundering at a time when a number of banks have been in the spotlight for such abuse.





You're reading an article about
JPMorgan told to fix poor risk management tied to $6-billion loss
This article
JPMorgan told to fix poor risk management tied to $6-billion loss
can be opened in url
http://newsvisitors.blogspot.com/2013/01/jpmorgan-told-to-fix-poor-risk.html
JPMorgan told to fix poor risk management tied to $6-billion loss