Monday, May 21, 2012

Politics, politics and more filthy internal politics played a role in JPMorgan trading debacle




The New York Times offers an interesting take on the disastrous trades that has cost the banks more than $3 billion in paper.

It reports that Ina Drew, the CIO who resigned to accept accountability for the botched trades, contracted Lyme Disease in 2010, which resulted in frequent absences at a crucial time. She had always had a firm grip on the trading risk that her unit took on, but while she was out, an internecine war broke out between her top deputy in London, the now infamous Achilles Macris, and her deputies in New York.

Macris and his team were prone to outsized trades that made the New York team nervous. Meetings during Drew's absence often devolved into shouting matches over the trades. In the end, there was no one to push back against the huge trades of Macris unit. After Drew returned, she seemed to have less of an appetite for managing such deep internal divisions. In the end, Macris won the internal war, and the results are history.

Read more: Internal politics plays role in JPMorgan trading debacle - FierceFinance
http://www.fiercefinance.com/story/internal-politics-plays-role-jpmorgan-trading-debacle/2012-05-21

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