JPMorgan chief 'to leave over trading loss'

The chief investment officer at America's biggest bank is to step down after it unveiled shock two billion US dollar (£1.2 billion) losses last week.

Ina Drew, chief investment officer at JPMorgan Chase, will retire after spending more than 30 years at the firm and will be replaced by Matt Zames, currently co-head of Global Fixed Income in the Investment Bank.

A team of high-stakes traders, including one dubbed the London Whale, are at the centre of an investigation over the losses.

Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive, said: "Ina Drew has been a great partner over her many years with our firm. Despite our recent losses in the chief investment office, Ina's vast contributions to our company should not be overshadowed by these events."

Mike Cavanagh, chief executive of the bank's treasury and securities services (TSS) group, will lead a team of senior executives from across the company to oversee a response to the losses.

The so-called London Whale, who gained the nickname because of the size of the positions he took, has been widely reported to be French-born Bruno Iksil and is also expected to announce his departure.

He is understood to be one of the best-paid traders in the City and commutes to London from Paris on a weekly basis.

Insiders at JPMorgan Chase stressed that he is not a rogue trader, but one of a team whose strategy went wrong.

The trading loss is an embarrassment for the bank that came through the 2008 financial crisis in much better health than its peers, steering clear of risky investments that hurt many other banks.

It was reported in April that a single trader, known as the London Whale, was making such large trades that he was moving prices in the 10 trillion-dollar market.

PA