U.S. bank regulators will review whether JPMorgan Chase & Co. executives should have to give back compensation due to the bank's failed hedging strategy that has produced at least $2 billion in losses, the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said.
OCC chief Thomas Curry said his agency will evaluate the compensation of the Chief Investment Office responsible for the trading loss, and will assess JPMorgan's determination on clawbacks as part of that evaluation.
In testimony prepared to be delivered before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday and obtained by Reuters, Curry also said JPMorgan's trading loss will affect its earnings but does not present a solvency issue and does not threaten the broader financial system.
He said the OCC is meeting daily with JPMorgan managers to reduce the risks associated with the trading portfolio.
Regulators have come under scrutiny for not raising red flags earlier about the massive hedging strategy that went awry, despite having more than 100 examiners embedded at JPMorgan.
The OCC regulates JPMorgan's banking activities, while the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is the primary regulator of JPMorgan's holding company.
Curry is due to testify alongside Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp acting Chairman Martin Gruenberg, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray.
In his prepared testimony, Curry said OCC examiners met with JPMorgan bank management in April to discuss the bank's trading activity, and directed JPMorgan to provide more information about the transactions and their risks.
"Our examiners were in the process of evaluating the bank's current position and strategy when, at the end of April and during the first days of May, the value of the position deteriorated rapidly," Curry said.
He said since that time, the OCC has been meeting daily with JPMorgan managers to re-evaluate the bank's risk management and what actions JPMorgan should take to reduce the risk of the positions at issue.
Curry also said that OCC examiners have not found activity at other large banks similar to the scale or complexity of JPMorgan's trading activity.
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