JPMorgan Ignored Scads of Red Flags

There is likely some hell yet to be paid at JPMorgan after the bank lost $2 billion on bets that were supposed to be hedges. The firm's shareholders are meeting today, and many want to knock CEO Jamie Dimon out of the chairman post, Reuters reports—including the California Public Employee Retirement Fund, the largest pension fund in America. The bank, meanwhile, is considering clawing back incentive pay to ousted Chief Investment Officer Ina Drew, Bloomberg reports.

Any ire directed at Dimon and Drew would be well founded, former employees tell the New York Times, because both ignored copious warnings about risky trading activity. "There was a lopsided situation, between really risky positions and relatively weaker risk managers," one former trader says. When the Investment unit's internal risk officer objected to trades from European chief Achilles Macris, for instance, Macris simply brought in a more agreeable risk officer. The ex-employees say the appetite for such risk went all the way to the top, but the bank insists it was confined to Drew's unit. (More JPMorgan Chase stories.)