financial regulation

Jamie Dimon Shook Up JPMorgan Management Post-CIO Loss Because He God Damn Well Felt Like It, Will Support The Asinine Reforms Threatening To Destroy America On A Dark Day In Hell

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Jamie Dimon, the outspoken chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, sat down on Tuesday for what banking analysts called a “fireside chat” during the Barclays 2012 Global Financial Services Conference. Known for his hands-on management style and confident swagger, Mr. Dimon has been navigating the fallout from a rare misstep in his career after JPMorgan announced a multibillion-dollar loss on a complex credit bet at its chief investment office unit. During a question-and-answer session with Jason Goldberg, a Barclays analyst, Mr. Dimon responded to questions about things like his stance on the mounting turmoil in Europe and regulatory changes, in particular the Volcker Rule, which restricts banks from trading with their own money. Mr. Goldberg started by asking Mr. Dimon about the rationale behind shaking up the upper echelons of JPMorgan’s executive suite in July. “It had nothing to do with the chief investment office,” Mr. Dimon said. He added that “there is nothing mystical, folks,” because the moves enabled greater cross-selling. “Cross-selling is a big deal, and we do an exceptionally good job,” he said…Tackling the issue of whether the big banks should be broken up, Mr. Goldberg asked Mr. Dimon about recent calls to break up the major banks. “There are huge benefits to size,” Mr. Dimon said. He noted that JPMorgan’s size allowed it to be “a port in the storm” during the market turmoil of 2008. “Big banks have a function in society.” The United States, he added, has the “best, widest, deepest and most transparent capital markets in the world.” Cautioning against needless reform, Mr. Dimon said, “Let’s make sure we keep that before we do a bunch of stupid stuff that destroys that.“ [Dealbook]

  • 11 Jul 2012 at 2:50 PM

CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton Uses Public Meeting On Dodd/Frank Rulemaking To Test Out Open Mic Night Bits

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In full: Read more »

  • 13 Sep 2011 at 12:55 PM
  • Banks

Soon You’ll Be Able To Go To The FDIC Website And See If Uncle Jamie Left You Anything In His Will

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The term “living will,” applied to liquidation plans for big banks, has always seemed like a bit of a euphemism. After all, it really means “instructions on how to divide up our stuff when we die.” So, y’know, more of a regular will:

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board voted unanimously today to release a joint final rule laying out what the largest and most complex financial firms must include in so-called living wills they’re required to file. The panel also approved contingency planning guidelines for insured banks. … Regulators are requiring financial firms to file plans that are developed under the context of the bankruptcy code, with each designed to give a blueprint for how a firm could be taken apart.

And, lest your estate planning was going to be along the lines of “I must keep in good health and not die,” the Feds are on to that scheme too. From the rule:

Several commenters were concerned that the Proposed Rule favored resolution over recovery and was biased in favor of separation of the insured depository institution from the parent organization rather than looking to maintain enterprise value. By issuing the Rule, the FDIC does not intend to substitute resolution planning for recovery planning. Both are very important and serve complementary purposes. The Rule, however, focuses on resolution planning.

It turns out, though, that this may be a bit of an exaggeration. Read more »

  • 22 Nov 2010 at 11:38 AM

Vikram Pandit Was Complying With The Volcker Rule Before It Was A Rule

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With the passing of the Dodd-Frank Bill, one pesky thing that banks have had to spent a couple hours getting in line with is the Volcker Rule, and what it means for their proprietary trading desks. Whether to spin them off, send the employees to a farm in the country where they can run around, move them to the basement or just rename the group the ‘troprietary prading’ unit, about which no one will be the wiser, the whole thing has been a bit of a headache. One person who hasn’t lost any sleep over the mandate, however, is Vikram Pandit. Because unlike his counterparts at say, Goldman, who’ve clutched their pearls and felt faint at the thought of a world without prop, Vickles got behind the rule before it was even a twinkle in Volcker’s eye. Read more »

  • 21 Oct 2010 at 10:32 AM

Goldman Prop Team Moves In With Henry Kravis

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The Principal Strategies group has a new home starting in January. Read more »

  • 07 Oct 2010 at 11:45 AM

Breaking: Banks May Actually Just Pretend Publicly To Be Playing By New Rules, Proceed To Do Whatever They Damn Well Please

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While Wall Street publicly is dismantling its dedicated proprietary trading desks, some veterans of the Street are skeptical that the banks will really stop trading with their own money. They say banks could continue making house bets by disguising proprietary trading as making markets for clients. House bets, when they are mixed with client trades, are more difficult for regulators to detect. “To me, it is all smoke and mirrors,” one former Goldman managing director said. “The truth is that most of the position-taking occurs at the market-making level.” [Reuters]

  • 27 Sep 2010 at 11:58 AM

JPMorgan Employees Somewhat Miffed About Prop Transition To Asset Management

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From the mailbag: Read more »

  • 05 Aug 2010 at 3:38 PM

Do You Know What Democrats, Republicans, Wall Street Insiders And Lobbyists Were Doing When They Should’ve Been Crafting Meanginful Financial Reform? Matt Taibbi Knows

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I’m going to throw something out there that probably shouldn’t come as too much of a shock, knowing what we know about Matt Taibbi, the boy who spent months of late nights hunched over at his typewriter, gnawing the skin off his knuckles trying to figure out how those crooks at Goldman Sachs do it, reportedly threw scalding hot coffee in the face of a reporter who’d offered him constructive criticism and, on at least on occasion, kept a thermos of horse semen in his fridge to later be baked into a pie and smashed into an unsuspecting victim’s face. And here’s what: Matt Taibbi is the kind of guy who will install surveillance cameras in your home and office, without your knowledge, if he is under the believe you’re screwing him over. Ex-girlfriends can probably attest to this fact and now, sort of embarrassingly, Wall Street and Washington can too. Because Matt Taibbi did it to them, and today, in his duty as an American citizen, reports back on what he saw. We’re lucky he did this and will merely describe the scene to us, sparing us the horror show of actually watching it go down ourselves, which would be a harrowing experience. Read more »

  • 02 Aug 2010 at 2:45 PM

Tim Geithner To Talk Financial Reform, Whatever Else People Feel Like Chatting About, This Afternoon

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He doesn’t want to put the words in your mouth, but if *someone* wanted to ask him how good it felt school the Chinese in that pick-up game, that’d be okay by TG (and if anyone wants to go, he’s got sneaks in the car and this suit is a breakaway).

Later today at NYU Stern, Timothy Geithner, US Treasury Secretary, will give his first public remarks since the enactment of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The Secretary will address the core principles guiding the implementation of these historic reforms and how they will lay the foundation for a new, strong and stable American financial system. After his remarks, the Secretary will answer audience questions. Due to security and space limitations, the event is viewable via a live video link beginning at 4 p.m. Please note that Real Player is required.–NYU Stern Public Affairs

  • 27 Jul 2010 at 3:40 PM

Dodd-Frank Provisions We Can All Safely Ignore

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The following post is by Dealbreaker reader and commenter Infinite Guest.

Laws go unenforced for any of several superficially distinct reasons, but ultimately because of political failure. Mostly a reiteration of desuetudinal laws, Dodd-Frank seems deliberately written so that it can’t be enforced. Dodd-Frank is a gigantic recipe for political failure. Read more »

  • 27 Jul 2010 at 11:34 AM

Jerk Running Ferry To Fire Island Not Up On The Celebs Of Financial Reform

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Barney Frank is a pretty well-known Representative. But you know what? Some people just don’t keep up with the who’s who of Congress. Having said that, I’m pretty sure Mr. Frank did not go to the trouble of crafting this financial reform bill thing so that he could show up to various establishments (night-clubs, the supermarket, the ferry to Fire Island, what have you) and suffer the indignity of not only having to ask “Do you know who I am?” but have the answer be “No” and/or “I don’t care, sir.” Read more »