US and British authorities on Thursday said they had fined US investment bank JP Morgan a combined $920 million over the so-called London Whale scandal.
The fines were for serious failings related to the bank’s chief investment office (CIO), Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said.
The failings were in connection with $6.2 billion of trading losses in 2012, resulting from what became known as the “London Whale” trades.
“This is yet another example of a firm failing to get a proper grip on the risks its business poses to the market,” said Tracey McDermott, the FCA’s director of enforcement and financial crime.
“There were basic failings in the operation of fundamental controls over a high risk part of the business,” she continued.
“Senior management failed to respond properly to warning signals that there were problems in the CIO. As things began to go wrong, the firm didn’t wake up quickly enough to the size and the scale of the problems. What is worse, they compounded this by failing to be open and co-operative with us as their regulator,” she said.