JPMorgan's chief investment officer will 'retire'
— -- NEW YORK - The first head to roll following JPMorgan's $2 billion trading blunder is a 30-year veteran of the firm.
Until last week, Ina Drew was one of Wall Street's highest-profile female executives, in charge of the unit responsible for the trading error that led to JPMorgan's huge loss.
The fiasco has tarnished the firm's reputation and focused a new spotlight on bank regulation.
In a statement Monday morning, the bank said Drew, its chief investment officer, has retired. Drew, 55, who earned more than $15 million last year, was most recently head of the firm's Chief Investment Office.
JPMorgan said Drew will be replaced by Matt, Zames, currently the bank's co-head of Global Fixed Income and head of Capital Markets.
"Matt Zames is a world-class risk manager and executive - highly regarded for his judgment and integrity" CEO Jamie Dimon said
The firm also announced that Mike Cavanagh, CEO of its Treasury & Securities Services group, will lead a team of senior bank executives to "oversee and coordinate our firmwide response to the recent losses."
Dimon praised Drew for her 30 years of service despite the trading mishap. "Despite our recent losses in the CIO, Ina's vast contributions to our company should not be overshadowed by these events," Dimon wrote.
The Associated Press reported that Drew had offered to resign several times since Dimon disclosed the trading loss Thursday, according to a person speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the situation publicly.
Pressure built on the bank over the weekend to accept.
At least two other executives at the bank will be held accountable for the mistake, the person said.
The casualties come as JPMorgan, the largest bank in the United States, seeks to minimize damage caused by the $2 billion loss. Investors shaved almost 10% off JPMorgan's stock price on Friday and it was falling again Monday.
Dimon has said the mistake will complicate the efforts of banks to fight certain regulatory changes three years after the financial crisis.
JPMorgan's disclosure has led lawmakers and critics of the banking industry to call for stricter regulation of Wall Street. Many post-crisis rules governing risk-taking by banks are still being written.
Drew declined comment through a bank spokeswoman. Kristin Lemkau, a spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase, also declined comment. The Wall Street Journal had reported Sunday that Drew and two other executives were expected to resign.
The Journal also reported that Bruno Iksil, the JPMorgan trader identified as the "London whale" because of the giant bets he placed, was also likely to leave, but the newspaper reported that it was not clear when that would happen.
The surprise loss has been a black eye for the bank and for Dimon, who is known in the industry both as a master of risk management and as an outspoken opponent of some proposed regulation since the crisis.
Dimon said in a TV interview aired Sunday that he was "dead wrong" when he dismissed concerns about the bank's trading last month.
"We made a terrible, egregious mistake," Dimon said in an interview taped Friday and aired on NBC's "Meet the Press." "There's almost no excuse for it."
Dimon said he did not know the extent of the problem when he said in April that the concerns were a "tempest in a teapot."
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