Jamie Dimon Is Confronted Over $2B Trading Loss

The CEO of JPMorgan Chase offered a quick but blunt apology to shareholders Tuesday for a $2 billion trading loss that "should never have happened" and survived a push to strip him of the title of chairman of the board.

CEO Jamie Dimon, who in recent years has given expansive answers to questions about the bank's handling of foreclosures and loan modifications, was unusually subdued at the JPMorgan annual meeting.

He spent four minutes talking about the trading loss and steps the company has taken to address it, and just two more talking about accomplishments of the company over the past year.

The loss, disclosed Thursday, rattled investor confidence in the largest bank in the United States and in the ability of Wall Street to fight regulatory changes more than three years after the financial crisis.

It also added some theatrics to the JPMorgan annual meeting, traditionally a staid affair. Reporters swarmed, police with guns stood guard on the roof, and protesters threw eggs at a poster with Dimon's picture on it.

Of the trade, an ill-timed bet on so-called credit derivatives, Dimon said: "This should never have happened. I can't justify it. Unfortunately, these mistakes are self-inflicted."

Speaking with reporters later, he added: "The buck always stops with me."

Dimon won a non-binding shareholder endorsement of his pay package from last year, which totaled $23 million, according to an Associated Press analysis of regulatory filings.

Most of the shareholder ballots were cast in the weeks before Dimon revealed the trading loss. The pay package passed with 91 percent of the vote. The vote to strip him of the chairman's title won only 40 percent support.

Dimon was confronted at the meeting by shareholders upset about the trading loss. To some questions, he offered a simple, "OK, thank you."

The Rev. Seamus Finn, representing shareholders from the Catholic organization Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, said that investors had heard Dimon apologize before for the foreclosure crisis and other problems.

"We heard the same refrain: We have learned from our mistakes. This will never be allowed to happen again," Finn said. "I can't help wondering if you are listening."

Lisa Lindsley, director of capital strategies for an influential union of public employees that is also a major JPMorgan shareholder, said independent board leadership was in shareholders' best interest.

"An all-powerful CEO is his own boss," she said. "Looking for an infallible CEO is a fool's errand."

Most large American companies combine the jobs of chairman and CEO, but shareholders have pushed in recent years to separate them. About one in five Standard & Poor's 500 companies separate the jobs.

Supporters argue that an independent chairman can provide a check on the CEO's power. Shareholders also frequently push for separation at turbulent times for a company.

In JPMorgan's case, the move to separate the jobs was put on the ballot before the $2 billion loss was unearthed. It was also on the ballot last year, but it received far less support then, 12 percent.

While the meeting took place, JPMorgan stock climbed for the first time since the trading loss was revealed. It had fallen from $40.74 last Thursday to $35.79 after Monday's trading, but bounced back to $36.24 on Tuesday.