Spiritual Blogs

Last weekend we advised SD readers that our sources had informed us that JPMorgan’s derivatives losses sustained by their CIO desk were actually $100 Billion, not the $2 Billion admitted by Jamie Dimon to investors.
Well, one week later, the MSM (WSJ) is now reporting that JPM’s CIO has now lost $5 billion.

Perhaps more interesting, the WSJ states that Jamie Dimon personally approved the delta-hedging of its interest rate swaps positions which has resulted in the FUBAR derivatives losses for JPM.

So lets get this straight.  The Big Cahuna who approved the strategy gets a $23 million bonus, and reappointed as CEO by shareholders, while Iksil and boss Achilles who implemented the trade for Dimon get shown the door and have The Morgue attempt to claw-back their bonuses?

The US mega-bank JPMorgan Chase & Co loss from derivatives trading may widen to 5 billion dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. CEO Jamie Dimon personally approved the strategy that led to the trades, without monitoring how they were executed, the newspaper said.

JPMorgan last week announced a 2 billion dollars trading loss on synthetic credit products, or derivatives tied to credit performance. Dimon said the transactions, intended to manage risk, were “egregious” failures by the bank’s chief investment office. JPMorgan has said the amount could increase by 1 billion or more as it winds down the positions.

Joseph Evangelisti, a spokesman for New York-based JPMorgan, declined to comment on the 5 billion dollar estimate. 

The largest US lender by assets didn’t have a treasurer during the five months when the trades took place, the Journal reported in a separate article.

JPMorgan’s chief investment office oversees about 360 billion dollars, or the difference between deposits and what the bank lends. Matt Zames, who was appointed to lead the division after the loss was reported, shook up leadership and announced a “renewed focus” on hedging risks.