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For a company facing as much public scrutiny as JPMorgan Chase (JPM), even the smallest strategic move can ignite a firestorm of speculation about whats really behind its actions.
October 18 -
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara on Tuesday defended his decision not to prosecute JPMorgan Chase for allegedly facilitating Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, calling a deferred-prosecution agreement and monetary penalty an "appropriate" resolution of the bank's alleged failings.
January 7 -
In an email to employees, Jamie Dimon said the company is focused on eliminating products and services that aren't core to the business, while also boosting compliance with regulatory initiatives and improving oversight of outside vendors.
September 17 -
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) will pay $2 billion in penalties to settle charges that it ignored warning signs of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, according to multiple news reports.
January 6 -
In an attempt to combat money laundering, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is banning anonymous cash deposits into accounts at branches.
January 15
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is getting serious about getting to know its customers.
The megabank is sending out letters to "millions" of clients asking for additional information about their country of citizenship, occupation and phone numbers, according to a JPMorgan customer service representative. One such letter asks clients to update their identifying information by calling a customer service line or visiting a branch by March 21.
"We basically looked at our records and realized we have these gaps in these places," JPMorgan spokeswoman Mary Jane Rodgers said Friday.
The letters are of a piece with the company's broader efforts to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering regulations, which require financial institutions to monitor customers and report suspicious activity.
"We're making sure that we're taking every step to keep the bank and our customers and our country safe through closer adherence to anti-money laundering and know-your-customer regulations," Rodgers said. "We're reaching out to customers across lines of business to make sure that we have accurate information about them."
Sending mail to a sizable portion of the company's consumer base may be expensive, but the benefits of doing so far outweigh the drawbacks, says Gerard Cassidy, the head of bank equity research at RBC Capital Markets.
"When you compare the cost of sending out letters versus the fines you pay for not complying, it's cheap," Cassidy says. "This is part of the new world order for banks."
And while some customers may perceive the request for additional information as an intrusion of privacy, Cassidy says today's stringent regulatory environment leaves lenders little choice. "Customers may not be pleased with it, but the world we live in today requires this kind of documentation," Cassidy said.
JPMorgan chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon announced in September that the company would
