When JPMorgan Chase Chief Jamie Dimon testifies before the Senate Banking Committee today, following the money should be easy.
Senators who sit on the panel have received $7.9 million in campaign contributions from Dimon’s bank since 2008, according to campaign finance records from Opensecrets.org.
Wall Street and the rest of the financial services industry have lavished members of Congress with a total of $1.12 billion in contributions since 2008 — the biggest spender of all sectors.
On the committee, the biggest recipient of the financial industry’s largesse was Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has received $5.6 million in campaign contributions. Schumer voted for sweeping financial reform, known as the Dodd-Frank Act, which Dimon has criticized.
The industry’s overall lobbying tab in the recession hit $2 billion for their perks and services, filings show.
Dimon, who will answer questions about the bank’s $2 billion-and-climbing trading blunder, plans to say that the firm’s Chief Investment Office made huge, complicated bets that were supposed to hedge against risk but instead soured.
In prepared remarks released last night in advance of his grilling, Dimon called the fiasco an “isolated event” that should be “put in perspective.”
“We will lose some of our shareholders’ money — and for that, we feel terrible — but no client, customer or taxpayer money was impacted by this incident,” he said.
Dimon also plans to apologize for the mistake, saying, “We have let a lot of people down, and we are sorry for it.”