JPMorgan Whale Report Spreads Blame as Dimon’s Pay Halved
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JPMorgan Chase & Co., detailing lapses behind its biggest-ever trading loss, said employees were overwhelmed by the complexity of their bets, risk managers were ill-equipped and leaders including Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon weren’t aggressive enough in responding.
In a 129-page report issued yesterday, the bank described an “error prone” risk-modeling system that required employees to cut and paste electronic data to a spreadsheet. Workers inadvertently used the sum of two numbers instead of the average in calculating volatility. The firm also reiterated an assertion that London traders initially tried to hide losses that ballooned beyond $6.2 billion in last year’s first nine months.