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Bonus Watch '13: JP Morgan

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That $11-ish billion legal tab will probably leave a mark on payday.

The disastrous derivatives trade that cost the bank $6.2 billion, coupled with a barrage of regulatory fines and penalties, is expected to cut earnings — and by extension year-end bonuses. Wall Street workers are facing lower payouts after JPMorgan agreed to pay nearly $1 billion to the Securities and Exchange and other regulators to settle the trading scandal. The hit to the bonus pool will depend in large part on the bank’s final legal tab. Beyond the whale fine, JPMorgan is in negotiations with state and federal officials to pay as much as $11 billion to resolve a raft of mortgage-related probes and litigation. “We don’t know what litigation expenses it has reserved for, but if the bank is adversely impacted by [litigation] charges, you’d expect to see that impact on compensation,” said Barclays bank analyst Jason Goldberg.

[NYP]

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