Jamie Dimon Brutally Slams Some JP Morgan Execs For Their Reaction To The $6 Billion Trading Loss
Bloomberg reports that JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that some JP Morgan executives "acted like children" when they heard about the errant 'London Whale' trade that eventually cost the bank over $6 billion last year.
He was speaking at a JPM conference in San Francisco.
“Instead of helping, they were running around with their head chopped off, ‘what does this mean for me personally, how’s my reputation?’” Dimon said yesterday...Some people “felt they could take advantage of it personally, they were willing to hurt the company by maneuvering.”
“We had 100 people who worked every day for 90 days to help the real problem -- the risk -- not the ongoing regulatory review, but the real problem, to get the risk down so we didn’t have ongoing exposure,” Dimon said. While some people “acted terribly,” the bank now has the “best management team I’ve ever had in my entire life,” he said.
“You learn the good and the bad about people and that’s invaluable to find out who those people are. Invaluable,” he said.
Dimon also said that he told executives, some of whom were in tears, that it would take months for the bank to recover its image as the best bank on the Street.
“They are going to attack me, they are going to attack the company. I’m off my high-holy horse,” Dimon, 56, said he told his public relations and investor relations staff. “It is what it is, don’t worry about it.”
There's a lesson in there somewhere, people.