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LOL, but I fully agree and will cover my short thereabouts.
GLTY
ROFLMAO at posters who PUSH JPM.
IMO, the bell has been rung!
Read about their rogue trader in London.
I see this coming home to roost sooner rather than later.
disclosure: I'm short from about 46.
GLTYA
Regulator to penalize JPMorgan over Lehman demise: NYT
ReutersReuters – 5 hours ago
(Reuters) - A U.S. regulator is set to penalize JPMorgan (NYS:JPM - News) for actions linked to the demise of investment bank Lehman Brothers at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, the New York Times said, citing people briefed on the matter.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is expected this week to file a civil case against JPMorgan. The bank is expected to settle the Lehman matter and pay a fine of about $20 million, the paper said.
Such a move will be the first federal enforcement case resulting from Lehman's downfall, the New York Times said.
The CFTC is expected to accuse JPMorgan of overextending credit to Lehman for two years leading up to its bankruptcy in 2008, according to the newspaper.
JPMorgan extended the credit using an inaccurate evaluation of Lehman's worth, improperly counting Lehman's customer money as belonging to the firm, the newspaper said, adding that firms are not allowed to use customer money to secure or extend credit under federal law.
The regulator is also set to accuse JPMorgan of withholding separate Lehman customer funds for nearly two weeks, rather than turning them over to authorities, the New York Times said.
JPMorgan declined to comment to the New York Times. The newspaper said the bank is expected to neither admit nor deny wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
JPMorgan and CFTC could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters.
(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad; Editing by Mark Potter)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/regulator-penalize-jpmorgan-over-lehman-073705844.html
MF’s Corzine Ordered Funds Moved to JP Morgan, Memo Says
By Phil Mattingly and Silla Brush - Fri Mar 23 23:07:46 GMT 2012
March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg News reporter Phil Mattingly and Seth Berenzweig, managing partner at Berenzweig Leonard, talk about a Bloomberg News report that Jon S. Corzine, MF Global Holding Ltd.’s chief executive officer, gave “direct instructions” to transfer $200 million from a customer fund account to meet an overdraft in one of the brokerage’s JPMorgan Chase & Co. accounts in London, according to an e-mail sent by a firm executive. They speak with Trish Regan and Adam Johnson on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart." (Source: Bloomberg)
Pelosky, Brusca, Lipton on MF Global Developments
March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg News reporter Phil Mattingly, Jay Pelosky, consultant at J2Z Advisory, Bloomberg View columnist William Cohan, Robert Brusca, president of Fact & Opinion Economics, and Bloomberg Television markets correspondent Joshua Lipton talk about a Bloomberg News report that Jon S. Corzine, MF Global Holding Ltd.’s chief executive officer, gave “direct instructions” to transfer $200 million from a customer fund account to meet an overdraft in one of the brokerage’s JPMorgan Chase & Co. accounts in London, according to an e-mail sent by a firm executive. They speak with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television's "Taking Stock." (Cohan is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. Source: Bloomberg)
MF Global’s Corzine Ordered Funds Moved to JPMorgan
March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Jon S. Corzine , MF Global Holding Ltd.’s chief executive officer, gave “direct instructions” to transfer $200 million from a customer fund account to meet an overdraft in one of the brokerage’s JPMorgan Chase & Co. accounts in London, according to an e-mail sent by a firm executive. Bloomberg's Julie Hyman reports on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart." (Source: Bloomberg)
CFTC May Act on New Rules by Summer, Chilton Says
March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Bart Chilton, a commissioner at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, talks about the investigation into bankrupt commodities broker MF Global Inc. and prospects for regulations that would place tighter restrictions on firms' use of investor funds. Chilton speaks with Scarlet Fu on Bloomberg Television's "InBusiness With Margaret Brennan." (Source: Bloomberg)
Enlarge image MF Global
MF Global Holdings Ltd. signage is displayed at 60 East 53rd Street in New York. Photographer: Stephen Yang/Bloomberg
Jon S. Corzine, MF Global Holding Ltd. (MFGLQ)’s chief executive officer, gave “direct instructions” to transfer $200 million from a customer fund account to meet an overdraft in a brokerage account with JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), according to a memo written by congressional investigators.
Edith O’Brien, a treasurer for the firm, said in an e-mail quoted in the memo that the transfer was “Per JC’s direct instructions,” according to a copy of the memo obtained by Bloomberg News. The e-mail, dated Oct. 28, was sent three days before the company collapsed, the memo says. The memo does not indicate whether that phrase was the full text of the e-mail or an excerpt.
O’Brien’s internal e-mail was sent as the New York-based broker found intraday credit lines limited by JPMorgan, the firm’s clearing bank as well as one of its custodian banks for segregated customer funds, according to the memo, which was prepared for a March 28 House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on the firm’s collapse. O’Brien is scheduled to testify at the hearing after being subpoenaed this week.
“Over the course of that week, MF Global (MFGLQ)’s financial position deteriorated, but the firm represented to its regulators and self-regulatory organizations that its customers’ segregated funds were safe,” said the memo, written by Financial Services Committee staff and sent to lawmakers.
Steven Goldberg, a spokesman for Corzine, said in a statement that Corzine “never gave any instruction to misuse customer funds and never intended anyone at MF Global to misuse customer funds.”
JPMorgan Overdraft
Vinay Mahajan, global treasurer of MF Global Holdings, wrote an e-mail on Oct. 28 that said JPMorgan was “holding up vital business in the U.S. as a result” of the overdrawn account, which had to be “fully funded ASAP,” according to the memo.
Barry Zubrow, JPMorgan’s chief risk officer, called Corzine to seek assurances that the funds belonged to MF Global and not customers. JPMorgan drafted a letter to be signed by O’Brien to ensure that MF Global was complying with rules requiring customers’ collateral to be segregated. The letter was not returned to JPMorgan, the memo said.
The money transferred came from a segregated customer account, according to congressional investigators. Segregated accounts can include customer money and excess company funds.
Corzine Testimony
Corzine, 65, in testimony in front of the House panel in December, said he did not order any improper transfer of customer funds. Corzine also testified that he never intended a misuse of customer funds at MF Global, and that he doesn’t know where client funds went.
“I never gave any instruction to misuse customer funds, I never intended anyone at MF Global to misuse customer funds and I don’t believe that anything I said could reasonably have been interpreted as an instruction to misuse customer funds,” Corzine told lawmakers in December.
In his statement, Goldberg said Corzine did not specify which funds should be used to replenish the JPMorgan account.
“He never directed Ms. O’Brien or anyone else regarding which account should be used to cure the overdrafts, and he never directed that customer funds should be used for that purpose,” Goldberg said. “Nor was he informed that customer funds had been used for that purpose.”
$1.6-Billion Shortfall
The bankruptcy trustee overseeing the liquidation of the company’s brokerage subsidiary has estimated a $1.6-billion shortfall between customer claims and assets available.
Lawmakers and investigators from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice have been reviewing events leading up to MF Global’s bankruptcy filing. Executives including Corzine, a Democrat who served in the Senate before he was elected governor of New Jersey, gave testimony on the collapse at three congressional hearings last year. ....................................
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-23/mf-global-s-corzine-ordered-funds-moved-to-jpmorgan-memo-says.html
American Century wins $373M judgment from JPMorgan unit
Austin Business Journal by Paul Koepp, Reporter
Date: Thursday, March 22, 2012, 1:03pm CDT
American Century Investments quietly won a $373 million judgment last year against a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co. , according to court records reviewed by the Kansas City Business Journal.
An arbitration panel ruled in August that JPMorgan, which held a minority stake in American Century, broke a revenue agreement with the Kansas City-based asset management firm in an attempt to weigh down its value, making it a cheaper acquisition target.
A Jackson County judge upheld the award in December over JPMorgan’s objections. JPMorgan paid a lump sum of $384 million, including interest, later that month, said Randy Hendricks of Rouse Hendricks German May PC , which represented American Century.
“It represents an important event for a Kansas City company to prevail in what resulted in the largest verdict in the state of Missouri, against a Wall Street powerhouse,” Hendricks said.
JPMorgan Chase Bank NA is the third-largest bank in Austin when ranked by deposits. The bank had $3.96 billion in local deposits in June 2011 and has more than 70 branches in the area.
Judge Jim Kanatzar unsealed key documents in the matter March 21 after the Business Journal had requested and received part of the case file from a court clerk. Time Inc. also had filed a motion to unseal the case.
American Century filed a lawsuit under seal in Jackson County Circuit Court in Kansas City in April 2009, alleging that JPMorgan had violated a 2003 agreement to market certain American Century ...
Geithner to Answer Questions In Lehman, J.P. Morgan Spat
BY PATRICK FITZGERALD
Lawyers for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he will respond to questions from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s creditors over allegations that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. illegally siphoned billions of dollars from the collapsing investment bank in the days before it filed for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Lawyers for Lehman's creditors subpoenaed Mr. Geithner, who was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at the time of Lehman's collapse, as well as then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as part of its civil lawsuit against J.P. Morgan. Lehman and its creditors contend J.P. Morgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304724404577293584010002846.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection
How a Whistleblower Halted JPMorgan Chase's Card Collections
This is the second in a series on JPMorgan Chase's delinquent credit card collections operation. The first article can be viewed here. Further coverage will follow.
No sooner did Linda Almonte show up for work on November 30, 2009 than was she escorted out the door by security at JPMorgan Chase's Credit Card Litigation Support Group in San Antonio. A midlevel Chase executive who oversaw business process execution employees, Almonte says she was fired after just six months on the job for challenging her superiors about the accuracy of the bank's credit card records.
Colleagues first learned of her dismissal later in the day when operations manager Jason Lazinbat, Almonte's former boss, gathered bank staff in a conference room and announced she was no longer with the bank. Under no circumstances, Lazinbat warned, were staffers to communicate with Almonte, recalls Carole McGinn, a quality control worker who spent 14 years at Chase. The account was confirmed by second employee, who requested to speak anonymously.
"It was an unusual statement," McGinn says. "Other people had left the bank, and we were not told" to cut off contact with them.
The contentious nature of Almonte's departure was a prelude to a series of events that serve as a cautionary tale for the banking industry. The former mid-level staffer eventually filed a whistleblower suit and complaints with regulators that accused Chase of a range of lapses over three years. They include: failure to reconcile the inconsistent past-due balances generated by the bank's computer systems; pressure from management to collect delinquent debts even in the absence of complete or accurate records; and robosigning of affidavits that brings into question the legal integrity of Chase's claims against tens of thousands of consumers.
Many of Almonte's accusations are backed by internal bank documents and current and former employees. What's more, they've forced Chase to cease operations in a collections unit that had previously generated billions of dollars in annual revenues.
Lazinbat did not respond to calls or email messages seeking comment, and the bank previously declined to speak on his behalf. Chase also declined to comment for this story on its own behalf or for the March 12 article.
After publication of that story, however, the bank released a statement saying: "Following issues raised with mortgage documents, we conducted an internal review across the firm and found other procedural issues. We immediately alerted our regulators and worked to address them." With its delinquent credit card customers, Chase added that in the "overwhelming majority of cases" its internal review indicated it had collected the correct amounts.
In contrast, Almonte charged in her wrongful termination suit that Chase fired her for resisting its efforts to sell faulty credit card debts. Chase, in its defense of the suit, made no effort to contest Almonte's allegations about the inaccuracy of its records or to proffer alternative explanations for her firing. Instead, it argued that it could release employees at will under Texas law and was within its rights to sell credit card accounts whose documentation was problematic or missing, as long as it informed buyers.
"[T]he parties explicitly agreed that the judgments were purchased 'as is' and 'with all faults,'" Chase wrote in a brief defending itself against Almonte's wrongful termination suit.
Almonte proved persistent, however. She contacted a number of regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Trade Commission, expanding on allegations from her wrongful termination suit. She also discussed her complaints with officials from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversees nationally chartered banks, including Chase. The OCC dispatched enforcement staffers to the bank's San Antonio facility for two months late last year as part of a still ongoing investigation, as American Banker previously reported.
http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/177_52/jpmorgan-chase-credit-card-collections-1047573-1.html
http://comments.cftc.gov/PublicComments/ViewComment.aspx?id=57019&SearchText#
Dear CFTC Staff,
Hello, I am a current JPMorgan Chase employee. This is an open letter to all commissioners and regulators. I am emailing you today b/c I know of insider information that will be damning at best for JPMorgan Chase. I have decided to play the role of whistleblower b/c I no longer have faith and belief that what we are doing for society is bringing value to people. I am now under the opinion that we are actually putting hard working Americans unaware of what lays ahead at extreme market risk. This risk is unnecessary and will lead to wide-scale market collapse if not handled properly. With the release of Mr. Smith’s open letter to Goldman, I too would like to set the record straight for JPM as well. I have seen the disruptive behavior of superiors and no longer can say that I look up to employees at the ED/MD level here at JPM. Their smug exuberance and arrogance permeates the air just as pungently as rotting vegetables. They all know too well of the backdoor crony connections they share intimately with elected officials and with other institutions. It is apparent in everything they do, from the meager attempts to manipulate LIBOR, therefore controlling how almost all derivatives are priced to the inherit and fraudulent commodities manipulation. They too may have one day stood for something in the past in the client-employee relationship. Does anyone in today’s market really care about the protection of their client? From the ruthless and scandalous treatment of MF Global client asset funds to the excessive bonuses paid by companies with burgeoning liabilities. Yes, we at JPMorgan that are in the know are fearful of a cascading credit event being triggered in Greece as they have hidden derivatives in excess of $1 Trillion USD. We at JPMorgan own enough of these through counterparty risk and outright prop trading that our entire IB EDG space could be annihilated within a few short days. The last ten years has been market by inflexion point after inflexion point with the most notable coming in 2008 after the acquisition of Bear.
I wish to remain anonymous as of now as fear of termination mounts from what I am about to reveal. Robert Gottlieb is not my real name; however he is a trader that is involved in a lawsuit for manipulative trading while working with JPMorgan Chase. He was acquired during our Bear Stearns acquisition and is known to be the notorious person shorting in the silver future market from his trading space, along with Blythe Masters, his IB Global boss. However, with that said, we are manipulating the silver futures market and playing a smaller (but still massively manipulative) role in manipulating the gold futures market. We have a little over a 25% (give or take a percentage) position in the short market for silver futures and by your definition this denotes a larger position than for speculative purposes or for hedging and is beyond the line of manipulation.
On a side note, I do not work directly with accounts that would have been directly impacted by the MF Global fiasco but I have heard through other colleagues that we have involvement in the hiding of client assets from MF Global. This is another fraudulent effort on our part and constitutes theft. I urge you to forward that part of the investigation on to the respective authorities.
There is something else that you may find strange. During month-end December, we were all told by our managers that this was going to be a dismal year in terms of earnings and that we should not expect any bonuses or pay raises. Then come mid-late January it is made known that everyone received a pay raise and/or bonus, which is interesting b/c just a few weeks ago we were told that this was not likely and expected to be paid nothing in addition to base salary. January is right around the time we started increasing our short positions quite significantly again and this most recent crash in gold and silver during Bernanke's speech on February 29th is of notable importance, as we along with 4 other major institutions, orchestrated the violent $100 drop in Gold and subsequent drops in silver.
As regulators of the free people of this country, I ask you to uphold the most important job in the world right now. That job is judge and overseer of all that is justice in the most sensitive of commodity markets. There are many middle-income people that invest in the physical assets of silver, gold, as well as mining stocks that are being financially impacted in a negative way b/c of our unscrupulous shorts in the precious metals commodity sector. If you read the COT with intent you will find that commercials (even though we have no business being in the commercial sector, which should be reserved for companies that truly produce the metal) are net short by a long shot in not only silver, but gold.
It is rather surprising that what should be well known liabilities on our balance sheet have not erupted into wider scale scrutinization. I call all honest and courageous JPMorgan employees to step up and fight the cronyism and wide-scale manipulation by reporting the truth. We are only helping reality come to light therefore allowing a real valuation of our banking industry which will give investors a chance to properly adjust without being totally wiped out. I will be contacting a lawyer shortly about this matter, as I believe no other whistleblower at JPMorgan has come forward yet. Our deepest secrets lie within the hands of honest employees and can be revealed through honest regulators that are willing to take a look inside one of America's best kept secrets. Please do not allow this to turn into another Enron.
Kind Regards,
-The 1st Whistleblower of Many
An Open Letter to Jamie Dimon
By Tyler Durden
Created 03/11/2012 - 11:40
Submitted by Tyler Durden [1] on 03/11/2012 11:40 -0500
Submitted by James Koutoulas, President, Commodity Customer Coalition and CEO, Typhon Capital Management
An Open Letter to Jamie Dimon
“People fall not from their weaknesses, but from their strengths gone to excess.”- Aeschylus
Dear Mr. Dimon,
I used to be one of your biggest fans. Back when I was 17 years old working at a Salomon Smith Barney branch in Ft. Lauderdale, you were fired from Citigroup when everyone had you pegged as the heir to Sandy Weill’s burgeoning empire. Everyone at the branch was shocked, as we all knew you by reputation as a brilliant CEO-in-the-making, and frankly, most of us were disappointed as we genuinely were all looking forward to working under your leadership one day.
While your ousting was unexpected, you recovered quickly, and perhaps it helped motivate you to accomplish great things in the financial industry. You came to the CEO post at Bank One, then engineered its acquisition by JPMorgan Chase and took the CEO prize for yourself. All the while, Citi floundered, and you led JPMorgan Chase to become the premier American bank. Under your stewardship, Chase eschewed most of the sub-prime crisis and snapped up some of the choicest prizes in the ensuing crisis, namely Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual. Well done, sir.
Personally, I was proud to be a JPMorgan customer and proudly listed in our offering documents that our firm’s operational capital was safely held with your institution. I enjoyed great relationships with both your hedge fund/commercial banking division and your newly resurgent futures prime brokerage group. We were even on good terms with your private bank.
Then, the MF Global bankruptcy happened. And, I became aware of your bank’s involvement with the firm’s collapse. How the New York Times reports that JPMorgan received 325M in segregated customer funds [11]despite the fact that JPMorgan Chase was a primary custodian for them. Then, JPMorgan Chase reportedly failed to return the funds when MF Global reported that they erroneously transferred customer assets and went a step further into “CYA” mode by requesting a comfort letter indicating that JPMorgan Chase had not received customer funds. JPMorgan Chase reportedly did not receive this letter, yet still, it kept customers’ property.
Through my role as the co-founder of the Commodity Customer Coalition and pro bono counsel for some 8,000+ customers whose property it looks like your institution may be holding without their consent, I have loudly advocated for JPMorgan Chase to return this property. In response to this, rather than doing the right thing, you closed all of my personal and corporate bank accounts and my personal credit card [12]. I have been told by multiple members of the media that JPMorgan Chase has called them and stated that if their media outlet has me on television again, that JPMorgan Chase will pull their advertising from the offending network.
These bully tactics have only strengthened my resolve to protect my clients whom you have knowingly wronged and continue to wrong by improperly holding their property. It has made me delve deeper into what I have found is a pattern of such malicious conduct across JPMorgan Chase’s business groups. JPMorgan Chase bribed officials in Jefferson County, Alabama [13], one of the poorest counties in the United States, to enter into a disastrous derivative transaction that bankrupted the county and caused an increase of 400% in sewage prices, forcing these poor people to have to choose between food and clean water. JPMorgan Chase designed an overdraft processing system [14]that intentionally prioritized higher dollar transactions so that as many transactions as possible would overdraft, again generating usurious-like fees on the bank of those who can ill afford it. Let’s not forget about robo-signing [15], forging foreclosure documents [16], or, getting back to the futures world, failing to properly segregate customer funds [17].
Mr. Dimon, why do you impugn your character and reputation by allowing your firm to engage in these immoral activities? Sure, the regulators have failed to assess you any meaningful punishments that would deter you from this conduct on a strict, short-term dollars and cents analysis. Every penny of earnings counts, I get it. But, sir, you do not strike me as someone who is trying to pump your company’s stock price for a quarter or two. You are the face of JPMorgan Chase and, I would assume, you plan on being there for a while. Why intentionally destroy any and all goodwill your firm has to make additional revenue that is mostly insignificant in the short-term and, quite possibly, deleterious in the long-term? The only reason I can think of is: because you can. And, that, sir is where hubris starts.
Lately, it seems you’ve come to relish the role of antagonist, bully, and even, villain. You’ve gone on rants about tax rates, how gosh darn profitable you are going to make JPMorgan Chase, and even gone so far as to call out journalists for their share of salaries versus the revenue of news organizations. Put plainly, the confidence that enabled you to build JPMorgan Chase has now become arrogance. Mr. Dimon, I happen to have been a classics scholar and have read this story many times before. It never ends well.
While you have led your firm to a dominant position in the banking industry and record profits of late, you haven’t done it alone. You’ve had the benefit of taxpayer funds, whether you needed them or not (as you claim). You’ve had extremely favorable regulation and public policy that for years has prioritized re-capitalizing banks over the rights of Main Street Americans to be able to bear the fruit of their labor. Yet, you have begun to act like a megalomaniac, drunk on his own power ala Caligula, and attribute 100% of your success to your personal superlatives. People are starting to notice. While Occupy Wall Street has failed to articulate any clear message or goals, they have tapped into a rage in this country that is real and palpable. You have alienated many of your peers on Wall Street and in the hedge fund industry (yes, you have peers). And, now, you have alienated many members of the media that have the voices to spread the word of the ill conduct which your firm has repeatedly engaged in.
In the Niccomedean Ethics, Aristotle described the worst kind of man as the “Incontinent Man,” namely he who knows what he does is wrong and does it anyway. I believe somewhere deep down, you realize that a lot of what you and the bank that you lead do has become increasingly wrong. Why continue to go on like that? You’re at the pinnacle of wealth and power, and continuing to do wrong will not make you meaningfully richer or more powerful. It can only serve to hurt you. “For what will it profit a main if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?”
Based on all of your accomplishments, you may think you’re beyond reproach, that you will never have your comeuppance. But, there’s a reason that during Triumphs in Ancient Rome, a slave stood behind the Emperor whispering “all glory is fleeting” in his ear. Because, it is. And, one day, something bad will happen to JPMorgan Chase. I don’t know if it will be a blow-up of the bank’s some $500 Billion in re-hypothecation exposure or a squeeze on its rumored massive short silver position. Or, if the United States will again see a regulator that believes in, and enforces, stiff punishment for misconduct by banks. But, we will all find out should you continue down the path you are on.
So, rather than continuing to corrupt your soul to harm others for negligible gain to yourself, choose a different path. Use your intelligence and your leadership abilities and your charisma to do the right thing, and set an example for the rest of the financial industry by showing that it is better for all society, JPMorgan Chase and Jamie Dimon included, to not crush those weaker or poorer than you by exacting every last cent from them just because you can. Rein in your malicious activities and focus on the legitimate ones. Be just a little humble -- and remove the target you’ve placed on your own back.
Perhaps, you can start by voluntarily returning the returning all the excess overdraft fees JPMorgan Chase overcharged average Americans through mal intent. While you’re at it, give back the hard-earned property of the farmers, ranchers, retirees, and others who were MF Global clients before I come take it back in court. JPMorgan Chase can borrow at 0% interest from the Fed. Do you realllly need an illicit free loan borne on the backs of farmers?
Whether you realize it or not, you’re at a crossroads. And, I promise you, one Greek to another, I will ardently help you to come to the end of whichever path you choose.
James L. Koutoulas, Esq.
President, Commodity Customer Coalition
CEO, Typhon Capital Management
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-open-letter-jamie-dimon
UZ, typical Rosenfart "speak" but as to Edgar, I wonder if this is really true?
IMO, I doubt this, having had conversations with him before.
GYS
sidedraft, NO, but others!
However this is a VOTING YEAR!
SEC, now finally grasping this and so far haven't!?
I really wonder?
as
well as HF's who think that they were unjustly persecuted...??
Coming up short/shortly!?
Well, the Europeans are going after not only BofA, CITI BUT majorly after JP Morgan, selling them BS, unsubstanciated PAPER and collapsing them..... in the process!
GYS
and GLTY!
WC, thanks for the reply.
GYS
WC, thanks for the "recap" as minute as it was and didn't tell me anything going on in court today, alas couldn't log onto the hearing.
WTF really happened there and what was the outcome?
Another question:
FDICK is still holding some assets (branches etc..) JPIG didn't want.
What happened to them? Where are they?
TIA
GYS
Cat, all the best to you and Chelsea as well as speedy recovery. Where in Germany will she have the surgery?
GYS
BTW, is anyone listening to the court proceedings today? Ilene isn't tweeting either.
A recap would be greatly appreciated.
TIA
fio1259, talk to me via
ladik4@hotmail.com
GYS
UZ, the revolving door only works 1-WAY = towards JPIG so far + the gov.
Let's see what the Europeans have to say, keeping JPIG afloat?
GYS
fio1259, hate to tell you, this is correct!
I also called TDA regarding the votes/releases and was given the same.
YOU/ONE can opt in = giving releases,
BUT
NONE can change their previous vote "to not giving releases".
SOMETHING stinks majorly here.
GYS
STRIKEEAGLE, AMEN to that!
GYS
Mik3k, great point!
By giving the releases I was torn as to what I would be getting in return, granting them.
Anyone having been in business should have questioned that. I certainly did.
However I did trust SS/his team encouraging us to do just that (what's behind door #3?).
As to JMW, she's/has been a patsy to the "powers" and I certainly hope that she sleeps well at night = NOT!
Retiring from the bench with full pay? same as Sheila Bair (FDICK) irks me though!
GYS
GO4AWILDRIDE, couldn't agree with you more.
However "in plain sight?" not YET but will be after BK.
Remember K-Mart after BK where value miraculously appeared only to benefit the "chosen few" = HF's and everyone else was wiped out?
GYS
UZ and Side, YOU both "fail" at this point.
Granted that it looks like that JPIG and FDICK won, not so by a long shot.
Watch going FWD, JPIG encountering major dilemmas in their trading dpt,
"strike one"
so far and more on the horizon.
GYS
Guess Jamie Dimon is going off the deep end now?? or annihilating/fleecing more $$ from average American with the help of the government so far, WELL remains to be seen!! He certainly is on a "roll". But then beware of the demons....???
JPMorgan Clients With Under $100K Unprofitable
By Laura Marcinek - Tue Feb 28 22:58:46 GMT 2012
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the largest U.S. bank by assets, said about 70 percent of customers with less than $100,000 in deposits and investments will be unprofitable following regulations that cap lenders’ fees.
“I’m trying to give you a proxy for what the banking industry has to look forward to if you don’t take into account business bank clients and getting more of the affluent wealth wallet,” Todd Maclin, chief executive officer of consumer and business banking at the New York-based company, said today at an investor presentation.
The biggest U.S. banks are grappling with lost revenue from regulations that cap debit interchange fees and overdraft charges, making customers with low deposits more expensive for lenders to manage. JPMorgan, run by CEO Jamie Dimon, sees its greatest opportunity with affluent customers that have more relationships with the company, Maclin said.
“Lost revenue has to be replaced with higher share of wallet and customer penetration,” Maclin said. “You have to get your costs and where you spend your time, to the fullest extent possible, more in line with where the opportunity is.”
JPMorgan said there is a “significant opportunity to deepen affluent relationships” and a “limited opportunity to deepen relationships” with customers who have less than $100,000 in deposits and investments, according to slides at the presentation.
‘Better Customers’
“We will see banks pulling out of certain markets, looking closely at where they have market share,” said Bert Ely, an independent bank consultant based in Alexandria, Virginia. “If you shrink the customer base too much, it will kill the bottom line. You have to avoid the downward spiral where you try to drive away customers and trim customers, and you lose your better customers because they aren’t happy with what you’ve done.”
The Federal Reserve has held interest rates at record lows, putting pressure on profit margins as banks make less money from deposits. The Fed has decided to keep the rates near zero through at least late 2014.
“When you are in this interest-rate environment, retail customers aren’t generating the interest income they used to,” Ely said. “The low interest rates would have a negative impact no matter what happens with regulations.”
Bank of America
CEO Brian T. Moynihan of Bank of America Corp., the second- biggest U.S. lender by assets, has said his strategy is to broaden relationships with the lender’s 8 million so-called preferred clients that are 1.5 times as profitable as the retail group. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company gives these customers incentives such as removing monthly service fees on checking accounts for using a Bank of America credit card, mortgage or Merrill Lynch brokerage account.
Bank of America abandoned a plan to charge some debit-card users $5 a month for the service after JPMorgan and San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) decided against imposing similar fees. Citigroup Inc. (C) and U.S. Bancorp (USB) had already rejected the idea. Maclin said JPMorgan will implement “follow- on pricing” for fees in the future.
“When the world lets us charge something more akin to your gym membership or your card, we’ll be right there with them,” he said. “In this environment, we’re just not going to rock that boat, and we have a brand and a franchise where we can make it up other ways over time.”
Regions Financial
Regions Financial Corp. (RF), the 10th-largest U.S. bank by deposits, launched a fee-based service last year that provides customers with money transfers, bill pay services, check cashing and reloadable prepaid cards. Since the program started in July, half of the customers who have started the service were existing Regions clients and half were new, said John Owen, head of consumer services group at the Birmingham, Alabama-based lender.
“If I can start off by cashing their check or loading a prepaid card, and then move them into traditional banking, which means moving them into a savings account or checking account, that’s what I want to do,” Owen said today in a phone interview. “We’re trying to get more people into the banking system.”
Regions “would love to” take on clients shunned by larger banks, Owen said. “We’ll take all we can get in our 16-state footprint,” he said.
Maclin said it’s possible that fees for checking accounts could reach $20 one day, which he said the bank would “celebrate.”
‘Invaluable’ Branches
JPMorgan’s branches are “invaluable” to its so-called affluent customers, according to the presentation slides. The company said it may open 900 “potential” new branch buildings in 2012, especially in California, Florida and Atlanta.
“Branches are not that expensive relative to all the opportunity and the other expenses that we have in running this place, given our scale,” Maclin said. “We would acknowledge with everybody else out there that it is entirely possible that they could go away one day. If they do, we will make a lot more money than we’re making right now. Until they do, we’re going to make sure we’ve got them so no one else can take our location.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Marcinek in New York at lmarcinek3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-28/jpmorgan-views-clients-with-less-than-100-000-to-invest-as-unprofitable.html
DUNNO whether this has been posted yet:
http://www.kccllc.net/documents/0812229/0812229120227000000000002.pdf
GYS
FWIW, reading the Y board regarding the extension:
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_W/threadview?m=te&bn=86316&tid=948971&mid=948971&tof=1&frt=2#948971
it seems that they are indeed short on those releases.
What's really interesting and YES I did confirm with TDA, you CAN change your vote into granting the release,
BUT NOT......
the OTHER way around, from previously granted releases to withdraw.
Therefore my previous assumption as to why the extension seems to be correct.
GYS
erevno, WOW!
......and you really believe this?
But maybe you mean a 2nd. chance for FDICk + JPIg to get everyone off their backs.
So far everything done in this BK through WGM etc..has has been to wipe out EQ period, only to enrich themselves in this cockamamie and rigged process.
GYS
UZ, I really wonder as to why?
Any WAGS out there?
IMO, they didn't get enough releases and want to sway additional ones.
BWTFDIK
GYS
side, maybe you should have phrased this question differently.
>>Shouldn't KCCLLC/WGM have notified the respective brokers regarding this change?<<
It's not up to the brokers to go chasing after info. It must be provided/supplied to them by the sources (attorneys, co's etc...)
This whole voting mess was created by them in the first place and IMO done by design, or plain ineptness on their part.
I must say though that E*Trade and TD Ameritrade handled it the best.
GYS
FWIW, interesting thread on the "Y".
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_W/threadview?m=te&bn=86316&tid=897333&mid=897333&tof=2&frt=2#897333
Comments welcomed.
GYS
Q for anyone. I was unable to listen in today and just read that the plan was approved from the bench.
Was there any outcome as to J.Berg's question as to how much an interest payment by JPM, holding our 4Bil. in their claws for over 3 years should/would be made?
TIA
GYS
For those of you who can't call in here are Ilenes post last 1/2 hour
Ilene Slatko @DelShareholder
Tranquility and other MBS claimants are similar, but perhaps not identical...hence the current arguments Will be litigated later
8m Ilene Slatko @DelShareholder
The MBS claimants were generally precluded from settlement, and are now trying to tack onto the Tranquility claim
6:51 AM - 16 Feb 12 via Twitter for BlackBerry® · Details
Here we are, again, arguing which class certain claimants are in...
15m Ilene Slatko @DelShareholder
Why is he even on the stand? We are getting no information...virtually no answers...again
18m Ilene Slatko @DelShareholder
Goulding claiming privilege and general lack of understanding
21m Ilene Slatko @DelShareholder
Goulding being crossed right now...attorney did not ID herself...
23m Ilene Slatko @DelShareholder
Tranquility is reducing its claim and is supporting the POR
25m Ilene Slatko @DelShareholder
Ed Sargent is here
26m Ilene Slatko @DelShareholder
Starting w Tranquility
28m Ilene Slatko @DelShareholder
Strochak is starting. Negotiations late into last night
musicman73, Prayer?
WTH for?
A settlement was hammered out, albeit some parties in the mix don't agree all of a sudden and doesn't mean poppycock, happened before!
I still believe in SS/EC and TPS should take their "beef" up with JPIG who knew full well that they had injected 7bil prior to take-over by them, or should I say annihilation by them.
According to an article some weeks back, the Seattle WAMU tower will be coming back to the estate and I wonder what else?
GYS
Sunnybank, meaning what now.
Your post is more than veiled to put it bluntly.
GYS
LOL and NO surprise there that THEY want it all.
Remains to be seen what the EC and SS are going to do/file now?
GYS
Upperlippy, seems to me that you
RECTIFIED what J.D did = in the same CLUB?gov agency?
GYS
REALtime64, yeah well as to your
>>she don't have to Rule on any this you dreaming again my friend plan is DEAD<<
I'm sure you mean well as well as stir up potential buyers.
Fine, but IMO you are/have been majorly misguided so far.
GLTY
GYS
FWIW, did anyone of you hear the talk/whine Jamie D. on Bloomberg and FN this early AM? but OTOH confident (J.Dimon) report this AM on Bloomberg and Fox?
Seems to me that Jamie "did a PR" for JPIG who seems on the verge of caving/crashing in again, losing in their trading dept AGAIN like so many others, sort of like MF-Global having bought EU papers which will not pay out, period?
Who else will they "inhale/annihilate" this time I wonder?
With the help of the GOV?
GYS
BANKRUPTCY WEEK AHEAD: WaMu Seeks Chapter 11 Plan Confirmation
Last update: 2/10/2012 11:53:50 AM
By Jacqueline Palank
Of DOW JONES DAILY BANKRUPTCY REVIEW
With more than three years of work and $7 billion on the line, Washington Mutual Inc. (WAMUQ) will try for the third time to secure court approval of its creditor-payment plan.
The company behind the biggest bank collapse in U.S. history on Thursday will ask the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., to sign off on its $7 billion Chapter 11 plan of reorganization. The court has already rejected two earlier proposals.
The plan, which will turn the company into an insurance operation, relies on a settlement that has stayed in place even as the plans themselves have been shot down. Washington Mutual settled an array of legal disputes with J.P. Morgan & Chase Co. (JPM), which bought Washington Mutual Bank after its failure, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which brokered the deal. The three-way settlement splits up valuable tax refunds, cash and other assets.
New to the third plan is a settlement with shareholders that had opposed the earlier plans, which promised them nothing. Now, they are slated to get equity in the restructured company.
Those lining up to oppose the plan include investors in Washington Mutual Inc.'s trust-preferred securities and die-hard litigants. Those investors claim they are entitled to a better payout than they are currently proscribed, seeking $4 billion in securities rather than stakes in the restructured company. The litigants, meanwhile, want to make sure there is enough money left over, should they prevail against the company in long-running legal battles.
Also looking to leave bankruptcy behind is TerreStar Networks Inc., which will present its Chapter 11 plan to a Manhattan judge this Tuesday.
The plan describes how TerreStar will distribute proceeds from the sale of its satellite wireless-communications business to Dish Network Corp. (DISH). Canadian regulators recently cleared the nearly $1.38 billion deal, which won bankruptcy-court approval last summer but which is still waiting for the green light from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
Of the sale proceeds, the bulk--$1.34 billion--is available for creditors, while TerreStar used the rest as working capital to fund its operations.
TerreStar, a majority-owned subsidiary of TerreStar Corp. (TSTRQ), has already paid most of its secured debt. Between August and October, the company gave secured noteholders $944 million and its bankruptcy lenders $85 million. A group that financed the construction of a TerreStar satellite received $90 million.
General unsecured creditors will share in remaining sale proceeds through the liquidation trust that was set up by the plan, while equity in the company will be canceled.
In Manhattan Wednesday, Eastman Kodak Co. (EKDKQ) will move to trim its expenses by asking to give up its expensive naming rights to the Kodak Theatre.
The 20-year agreement to sponsor the theater, a modern Hollywood landmark that has been home to the Academy Awards for the past decade, requires Kodak to make "significant" annual payments toward the deal's $70 million-plus price tag. The company said the benefits of the agreement no longer outweigh the cost.
The move faces the opposition of theater owner CIM Group, which questioned Kodak's timing. The theater is slated to host the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 84th annual Academy Awards on Feb. 26.
"The invitations and advertisements for the 2012 Academy Awards show are out. They cannot be recalled. The signage has been ordered," CIM Group said. "It simply is too late to turn back and disassociate Kodak from the Academy Awards show."
The real-estate firm added that, if the court lets Kodak break ties with the theater, it should at least wait until the end of the year so it has time to find a new sponsor, take down the many signs with Kodak's names and make new signs.
"For 12 years, CIM and its predecessor worked with Kodak to engrain the 'Kodak Theatre' name into the public's mind," the firm said. "CIM cannot now, in a matter of weeks, undo what has been built."
(Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review covers news about distressed companies and those under bankruptcy protection.)
-By Jacqueline Palank, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review; 202-862-6615; jacqueline.palank@dowjones.com
--Peg Brickley contributed to this article.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 10, 2012 11:53 ET (16:53 GMT)