JPMorgan Chase & Co. is winding down its proprietary trading operations and has given notice to its roughly 20 proprietary commodities traders that their jobs will be eliminated, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The company has not focused much on proprietary trading, but its small proprietary trading desks are nonetheless affected by the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law, particularly the Volcker Rule, which curtails proprietary trading, private equity and other investments that banks make with their own capital rather than for their clients.
JPMorgan Chase has decided to get out of all proprietary trading, and its commodities proprietary trading desk, which is in London, was one of the largest such trading desks at the bank, according to a person familiar with the matter. The status of the other proprietary trading desks is unclear, but they, too, have been or will be shuttered, the person said. The company is expanding trading and its other capital markets business elsewhere.
