JP Morgan Slammed With $920 Million in Fines for “London Whale” Trades

The “London Whale” Torpedoed in Trading Scandal

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MARK LENNIHAN / AP

J.P. Morgan Chase, the largest bank in America, will pay at least $920 million in fines stemming from its 2012 “London Whale” fiasco, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The bank will pay fines which together amount to one of the largest ever levied against a bank over a single trading strategy. The money will go to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, and Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority.

As part of the settlement, the bank will also admit wrongdoing and acknowledge that lax internal controls were partly responsible for allowing the massive derivative wagers made by traders in the London office that ultimately cost the bank more than $6 billion in losses. Top executives at the bank have already been brought down in the scandal but none are expected to be held to fault in the settlement, according to The New York Times.

Even after paying its leviathan of a fine, J.P. Morgan Chase will still be in troubled waters. The FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan are still pursuing criminal investigations and the bank is still negotiating with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which could result in yet more fines.

[The Wall Street Journal]