It’s a new softer side of Jamie Dimon.
The hard-charging JPMorgan CEO on Tuesday said the firm is turning over a new leaf with regulators in effort by the nation’s biggest bank to put scourge of the “London whale” trade and a laundry list of other regulatory screw-ups behind it.
Outlined in an internal memo yesterday, Dimon said JPMorgan has spent $1 billion to improve its risk controls in the wake of the trading scandal that cost the bank $6.2 billion and has drawn the ire of a raft of financial regulators.
Dimon also has been trying to mend fences with regulators who feel the bank hasn’t always submitted to its request for information.
“We are building a more transparent relationship with our regulators,” Jamie wrote in the missive to staffers.
Indeed, the bank hosted special meet-and-greet town hall-style meetings for regulators, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve.
Hot topics included better ways for the bank and its external watchdogs to work together.
JPMorgan’s new glastnost, however, may be too late for the bank to stem a wave of bad press and billions in penalties.
The bank has become one of the most penalized banks on Wall St. over the past year.
Indeed, Dimon’s bank is facing more than $850 million in fines related to its whale trade, which are expected to be levied on Wednesday. There is also a talk of a criminal probe into the trade led by the FBI.
Those fines come after JPMorgan already has been punished for bad behavior by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which assessed $410 million in penalties against the bank, charging some energy traders were manipulating electricity prices in California.