JPMorgan Chase is expected to pay more than $900 million in fines on Thursday and make an unprecedented admission of wrongdoing to government authorities in Washington and London, a pact that will settle a range of investigations over a multibillion trading blunder the bank suffered last year, according to people briefed on the matter.
The settlements with the government authorities â€" the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve and the Financial Conduct Authority in London â€" will be a pivotal moment for the nation’s largest bank as it works to move past the $6 billion trading loss.
That loss, which stemmed from outsize derivatives wagers made by traders at JPMorgan’s chief investment office in London, thrust JPMorgan into unfamiliar territory, staining the reputation of a bank long known for its risk prowess, claiming the jobs of top bank executives and triggering a flurry of investigations.
At the center of the investigations was the question of whether weak controls at JPMorgan allowed the London traders to cloak the losses. The bank, the people said, will acknowledge that it had lax controls and should have caught the problem faster. No senior executives are expected to be faulted in the settlement.
Still, JPMorgan will have to pay more than $900 million, according to the people briefed on the matter. JPMorgan will dole out roughly $300 million to the Comptroller’s office, and about $200 million to each of the other agencies.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is still negotiating with the bank, the people said, and is expected to levy additional fines against JPMorgan later this year.
In August, two of the traders â€" Javier Martin-Artajo, a bank manager who oversaw the trading strategy, and Julien Grout, a low-level traders who marked the books â€" were criminally charged. They were accused by federal prosecutors in Manhattan of wire fraud, falsifying bank records and contributing to false regulatory filings.
A spokesman for JPMorgan declined to comment.
