JPMorgan CEO faults company and shareholders for disagreements
JPMorgan Chase officials have not done enough to show how well the company is run, Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said on Wednesday, after one-third of shareholders disapproved last week of his pay and the practice of one person holding his two jobs.
"We have to do a better job of describing to the investor class" how the board of directors oversees executives, Dimon said at an investor conference. Since he came to the bank a decade ago, Dimon said, he has stepped out of board meetings so that directors will discuss their views and his performance independently.
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"The board talks all of the time about what they want the agenda to be," Dimon said, adding that the entire panel approved his compensation.
At the company's annual meeting last week in Detroit, JPMorgan's compensation for top executives was endorsed by only 61 percent of votes cast. A call for separation of the posts of CEO and chairman after Dimon has left was backed by 36 percent.
Dimon also faulted investors for not thinking for themselves and instead following the recommendations of shareholder advisory services Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis & Co. Both firms had argued against Dimon's pay and for an independent chairman of the board.
"God knows how any of you can place your vote based on ISS or Glass Lewis," Dimon said. "If you do that you are just irresponsible, I am sorry. And, you probably aren't a very good investor, either. I know some of you here do it because you are lazy."
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Dimon also said that it was "terrible" last week to have to go through with company's guilty plea to criminal conspiracy to manipulate foreign exchange rates. Dimon, who blamed the crime on a handful of people, said executives had to brief employees and clients on the decision. The company will lose "some" business as a result, he said.
Meanwhile, trading revenues in the second quarter are running about the same as a year ago, Dimon said. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said earlier in the day he expects trading revenue in the quarter to be "flattish to down a little bit."