Jamie Dimon’s checkbook is collecting dust.
Two months after the JPMorgan Chase CEO traveled to Washington, DC, to meet US Attorney General Eric Holder to finalize a sweeping multibillion-dollar mortgage securities settlement, a deal has yet to materialize.
Critics are blaming Holder for the delay, saying political grandstanding by country’s No. 1 lawman, along with his inability to control infighting between various federal agencies, is contributing to the lack of a deal.
Several media reports since Dimon’s Sept. 26 meeting at Justice Dept. headquarters have suggested that a settlement, believed to be for about $13 billion, was days away.
But still nothing.
Even on Monday, sources close to the talks said a settlement between the bank and several federal and state regulators over dicey mortgage securities could be inked this week.
But it would come despite and not because of Holder, critics said.
“At this point it’s just a waiting game,” said one person familiar with the talks.
Holder’s management of the protracted negotiations has ticked people off, sources added.
The roughly $13 billion agreement has been close to wrapping up only to come unhinged over seemingly minor issues.
In one case, a seemingly at-hand deal was reportedly scuttled over whether JPMorgan would be allowed to pursue claims against a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-run receivership for claims related to Washington Mutual, which JPM bought in 2008.
Dimon has been irked by the back-and-forth negotiations at times, sources said.
The talks also have led to infighting between some agencies that have been vexed by the pace set by Holder’s Justice Dept.
That irritation, sources said, led to the Federal Housing Finance Agency opting to announce its own $5.1 billion deal with JPMorgan weeks ago rather than wait for Holder’s team to announce an umbrella settlement.
Officials at the FDIC have quietly seethed at Holder bringing them into the talks so late, sources told The Post.
To be sure, corralling the various parties, each with their own agendas, has been a tall order, but several sources have accused Holder of lacking sufficient leadership to form a unified front against Dimon’s bank.
Despite the fact that the FHFA broke ranks with the DoJ in announcing its own settlement, the DoJ still is expected to characterize any agreement as a sweeping deal, one source noted.
A number of other regulators and agencies, not yet identified, are likely to emerge as participants to the deal when completed, sources said, as Dimon looks to put as much of JPM’s mortgage mes as possible behind him .
The National Credit Union Administration, which filed a suit against JPMorgan over mortgage securities earlier this year, may be such a party to the sweeping agreement, according to reports.