JPMorgan Chase could face $11 billion settlement
Jamie Dimon, the CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase, was in Washington today meeting with U.S. attorney general Eric Holder. Reports indicated the two were talking about a series of investigations the bank has been under surrounding their pre-crisis mortgage dealings.
“They have been very busy,” says Tim Fernholz at Quartz. He says it’s expected JPMorgan Chase will have to pay about $11 billion to settle the civil and criminal investigations. Fernholz says that while the number may seem high, “it probably is not a huge blip on their earnings.”
The Justice Department is reportedly investigating the bank’s use of mortgage-backed securities. And while most banks were involved in that part of the industry, Fernholz doesn’t think “everybody was doing it” will be a useful excuse for Dimon.
Dimon faced backlash last year from shareholders around the continued legal problems the bank has found itself in.
“There’s been a lot of communication from JPMorgan lately saying that they’re trying to turn over a new leaf to cooperate with regulators, to try to be as transparent as possible,” says Fernholz. “And whether that’s just sort of P.R. or whether that’s a real thing, it’s clearly seen as a problem within the bank that they have all of these angry regulators trying to extract as much money as they can from them.”
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
