JPMorgan Chase Execs Linked to Losses to Leave
Three high-ranking officers are expected to leave JPMorgan Chase this week, people familiar with the situation told The Wall Street Journal, in the latest fallout from a trading blunder that has cost the bank at least $2 billion.
According to the report, the departures involve three of the highest-ranking executives with direct connections to the losses, these people say.
Separately, the Financial Times reported, also citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, that JPMorgan Chase is investigating whether London-based traders hid the extent of losses on credit derivatives positions. The paper also reported resignations were expected within the next 24 hours.
The Wall Street Journal listed those leaving as: Ina Drew, who since 2005 has run the risk-management unit that is responsible for the losses; Achilles Macris, who is in charge of the London-based desk that placed the trades; and trader Javier Martin-Artajo, a managing director on Macris's team.
Drew has run the risk-management division at the bank responsible for the loss for the past seven years.
People familiar with the matter also told the paper that trader Bruno Michel Iksil, nicknamed the "London Whale" for the big positions he took in credit markets, could depart as well but the timing is unclear.
All four executives declined to comment through the company, the paper said.
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer James Dimon has been trying to contain the fallout from the $2 billion trading loss, which stunned Wall Street and sent JPMorgan shares tumbling 9 percent Friday.
Dimon told NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that the $2 billion trading loss from a failed hedging strategy was not"life threatening" to the bank.
He is likely to face further scrutiny Tuesday, when he addresses shareholders at the bank's annual meeting in Tampa, Fla.
The $2 billion loss came in the past six weeks. Dimon has said it came from trading in so-called credit derivatives and was designed to hedge against financial risk, not to make a profit for the bank.
Dimon has promised, in an email to the bank's employees and in a conference call with stock analysts, to get to the bottom of what happened and learn from the mistake.