JPMorgan Chase‘s board said on Friday that it was standing behind Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chairman and chief executive, amid calls from some investors that the two jobs be split.
In the bank’s proxy filing, the 11-member board said that Mr. Dimon should continue to hold both positions, as he has since 2006. “The board has determined that the most effective leadership model for the firm currently is that Mr. Dimon serves as both,†the filing said.
In the wake of a multibillion trading loss that roiled the bank’s executive ranks, some investors have been agitating for JPMorgan Chase to separate the roles. In February, a vocal group of shareholders, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and pension funds in New York and Connecticut filed a resolution to divide the chairman and chief executive posts.
Their effort appeared to gain momentum last week after a Senate hearing and scathing report into the trading losses, which that stemmed from a soured bet on credit derivatives. The 301-page Senate report painted a critical portrait of Mr. Dimon. As the trades grew more disastrous in 2012, the chief executive failed to rein in the risk, the report found. Instead, he allowed the bank to tweak its internal alarm system, allowing traders in the bank’s chief investment office, to place increasingly risking bets.
Since announcing the losses, which have swelled to roughly $6.2 billion, Mr. Dimon has struck a contrite note, moving  aggressively to overhaul the bank’s management and risk controls.
On Friday, Denise Nappier, the Connecticut state treasurer, continued to call for a division of the chief executive and chairman roles.
“We don’t believe the person responsible for these costly mistake should be overseeing reforms,†she said.
A nonbinding measure on a split received 40 percent backing from shareholders last year and this year’s resolution is expected to gain new votes as scrutiny of Mr. Dimon grows.
In January, JPMorgan’s board slashed Mr. Dimon’s compensation. The decision came after a series of marathon meetings led by Lee R. Raymond, the former chief executive of ExxonMobil who heads the board’s compensation committee. The board voted unanimously to reduce Mr. Dimon’s pay to $11.5 million from $23.1 million a year earlier.
Despite that move, the board still supports Mr. Dimon. Under his leadership, the bank has recorded record profits.
After investigating the trading losses at the bank, the board determined that while Mr. Dimon had “ultimate responsibility†for the losses, he took strong steps to stem the losses and rectify the problems. In its filing on Friday, the board said that Mr. Dimon “responded forcefully.â€
A separate internal report into the trading losses led by Michael J. Cavanagh, co-head of the corporate and investment bank, largely aimed its most scathing attacks on the executives who directly oversaw the traders who made the troubled wagers.
