Search Results for: JPMorgan

By Pam Martens: August 9, 2012 To those still clinging to the absurdity that Wall Street banks aren’t too complicated to manage, this flow chart that JPMorgan Chase filed today with the SEC as part of its quarterly financial report (10Q) should resolve the question. This is the organization chart for the entity, the Chief Investment Office, that oversaw the loss of $5.8 billion in the first six months of the year at JPMorgan Chase, the country’s largest bank by assets.  Imagine what the losses would have been if there were a few more departments on this chart. If one compiled a chart of the siloed regulators overseeing JPMorgan’s sprawling global operations, it would look alot like this chart.  Same for the mega law firms representing the more than 200 lawsuits against the firm.  Same for the criminal and civil investigators digging into the firm’s conduct.  More on that tomorrow.

By Pam Martens: July 13, 2012 If you were one of the smart folks and didn’t waste 120 minutes of your now shortened lifespan listening to three overpaid bankers at JPMorgan attempt to explain away gambling losses on insured deposits on this morning’s conference call, let me distill it down to what all that verbosity and high frequency speech was meant to obscure.  Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, and his colleagues on the call, repeatedly referred to this debacle as an “isolated failure.” The use of the word “isolated” is quite a stretch. JPMorgan Chase currently faces an FBI criminal probe of this matter; criminal probes over rigging overnight borrowing rates (Libor); a probe over rigging the electric markets of California and the Midwest; a fraud trial for rigging derivatives in Milan. It recently paid $1.1 billion to settle its foreclosure fraud issues and had to admit to Congress that it overcharged 4500 … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: July 6, 2012  A five day chart of JPMorgan Chase shows what shareholders think of the company. (The market was closed Wednesday for the July 4th holiday.) Taxpayers have no reason to cheer either.  Each day seems to bring another tax-payer funded investigation of potentially serious wrongdoing at the firm.  The latest probe involves an investigation into JPMorgan for manipulating electric markets in California and the Midwest through its commodities business.  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued subpoenas to JPMorgan in April and May.  FERC wanted emails pertaining to its investigation.  JPMorgan is now being sued by FERC in Federal Court in Washington, D.C. to turn over 25 emails it has withheld.   The dispute has erupted into the public spotlight over the incredulous claim by JPMorgan that the emails are subject to attorney-client privilege.  FERC says the emails are between bankers.  How JPMorgan hopes to convince a Federal court … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: June 29, 2012 Recent settlements by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have sent a dangerous message to Wall Street: feel free to lie freely to investors and shareholders as long as you have deep pockets.  In 2007, Citigroup told investors it had $13 billion in subprime exposures, knowing the figure was in excess of $50 billion.  It got caught and on July 29, 2010 paid $75 million to settle charges with the SEC.  Its CFO, Gary Crittenden, was fined a puny $100,000 and the head of its Investor Relations Department, Arthur Tildesley, was fined an even punier $80,000.  That sent a clear message to Wall Street, lying about the risks you are taking or what’s on your balance sheet results in a slap on the wrist and some chump change.  Lying has now morphed into its own profit center.  Also in July 2010, Goldman Sachs settled … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: June 26, 2012  JPMorgan Chase filed a prospectus today for a structured investment linked to Starbucks’ common stock.  Based on the language of the prospectus, it sounds like JPMorgan has not completely unwound itself from its troublesome derivative trades:    “…we may hold certain of our current synthetic credit positions for the longer term and, accordingly, the net income in our Corporate segment will likely be more volatile in future periods than it has been in the past. These and any future losses may lead to heightened regulatory scrutiny and additional regulatory or legal proceedings against us, and may continue to adversely affect our credit ratings and credit spreads and, as a result, the market value of the notes. See our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2012; ‘Risk Factors — Risk Management — JPMorgan Chase’s framework for managing risks may not … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: June 19, 2012 The House Financial Services Committee was in hearing session for four hours today on JPMorgan Chase’s losses and the only thing that was materially different from last week’s Senate Banking hearing was the tie of Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase. America’s mega banks that are too big to fail are now viewed as too big to manage,  too big to regulate and the latest incarnation, too big to tell the truth to the American people for fear of a panic.  Repeatedly during the hearing today, Chairman Spencer Bachus, Republican from Alabama, interrupted fellow members of the Committee who attempted to probe the size or specifics of the losses. The impression was that a deal had been made with JPMorgan’s lawyers that these subjects would be quickly shot down by the Chair. The House Financial Services committee also heard from the siloed regulators … Continue reading →

JPMorgan Chase & Co. will present a review of second quarter results and an update on its losses in its Chief Investment Office on July 13 at 7:30 a.m. (Eastern). The presentation, including a question and answer session, are expected to conclude at approximately 9:30 a.m. (Eastern). The general public can access the conference call via the following numbers: (866) 541-2724 or (877) 368-8360 in the U.S. and Canada; (706) 634-7246 for international callers. Callers are requested to dial in 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. The live audio webcast and presentation slides will be available at www.jpmorganchase.com under Investor Relations/Investor Presentations.

By Pam Martens: June 18, 2012 Mary Schapiro, Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has released her written statement for tomorrow’s hearing before the House Financial Services Committee regarding JPMorgan Chase’s losses. Based on the text, a number of problematic areas may arise for Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, who signed off on the firm’s first quarter financial filings with the SEC: Was there adequate disclosure of the credit default insurance sold to hedge funds and the ensuing income the firm was receiving from this high risk source; Was the potential for losses on all synthetic credit products adequately described; Did the firm properly detail the collateral calls that could arise on these synthetic credit derivatives. Why wasn’t the change to the VAR (Value at Risk) disclosed to investors? Read the full text of the statement here.