It doesn't take a kid to know that the Board of JPM are full of
groupthinkers looking at one direction.
(Reuters) - The board of directors of JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) said
on Friday it "strongly endorses" keeping Jamie Dimon as both their
chairman and chief executive of the company.
The comment, contained in the opening pages of the company's proxy
filing ahead of its annual meeting on May 21, is a more vigorous
affirmation of the same view the panel took last year when it opposed
an unsuccessful shareholder proposal to split the roles.
The remark comes even after the board said in January that it had cut
Dimon's annual compensation in half for 2012 to $11.5 million after
the company lost $6.2 billion on derivatives in the so-called "London
Whale" trades.
The board said the "strength and independence" of its oversight had
been demonstrated by actions the company took after the trading
debacle.
The company has since overhauled its risk controls and replaced some
of its top executives.
The new proxy includes a fresh shareholder proposal calling for
different people to hold the posts of CEO and chairman. It is similar
to last year's proposal which received 40 percent of the vote.
That vote came five days after the company suddenly announced on May
10 that it had a loss of more than $2 billion on derivatives trades.
The size of the loss grew afterward and investors learned more details
from congressional hearings about how badly the company had handled
its investment portfolio.
Proponents of this year's proposal, who include managers of pension
funds for New York City employees and for the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees, have added the derivatives loss
as a reason to separate the roles.
The board, as it did last year, said it while it is glad to have Dimon
in both roles it has not ruled out separating the posts in the future.
This year's meeting, like last year's, is to be held in a JPMorgan
office park in Tampa, Florida.
JPMorgan shares have recovered all of the market value they lost after
the derivatives debacle. The stock traded up 0.9 percent on Friday to
$48.78 at the close of New York Stock Exchange trading. It was at
$40.74 on May 10 before the company admitted it was losing billions of
dollars on the trades.
Dimon's total compensation, as presented according to the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission format, was $18.7 million in 2012,
down from $23.1 million in 2011. Company and SEC pay counts can differ
with the timing of incentive compensation.
(Reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz and Andrew Hay)
