Dimon: 'We will learn from our mistakes'

JPMorgan Chase & Co. will probe a $2.3 billion trading fiasco and "learn from our mistakes," its chairman said before a Tuesday shareholder meeting in Florida. The internal executive investigation will get to the bottom of the debacle, Jamie Dimon promised in a statement ahead of JPMorgan's annual meeting in Tampa, five days after he disclosed the bank's precipitous loss from a complex web of highly speculative trades tied to corporate debt. "We maintain our fortress balance sheet and capital strength to withstand setbacks like this, and we will learn from our mistakes and remain diligently focused on our clients, who count on us every day," Dimon's statement said. The risky trades cost one of the highest-ranking women on Wall Street her job. Ina Drew, a 55-year-old banker who headed the JPMorgan unit charged with the losses, is to receive $14.7 million in equity awards on her departure, though those gains could be reduced if she is found to have acted improperly, JPMorgan said in a statement announcing her departure Monday. Drew received $31.5 million in compensation over the past two years, regulatory filings indicate. The trades also triggered a Securities and Exchange Commission review, officials said. The bank's stock-market value tumbled more than $18 billion since the company admitted Thursday to losing the money over a 15-day trading period. The shareholder meeting -- besides letting investors register their anger at the bank's massive trading losses -- is likely to focus on a vote for the bank's board of directors to adopt an independent board chair, analysts told The Wall Street Journal and other publications. That move, by the pension plan of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, would have the potential to strip Dimon of that title, and therefore some of his power. The bank's board has said it firmly opposes the idea, proposed months before the trading debacle. An independent board chair could cause "uncertainty, confusion and inefficiency in board and management function and relations," the board said saying in a recent proxy statement. But Glass Lewis & Co., a governance analysis and proxy voting firm, has recommended the positions be separated, arguing corporate governance is weakened by allowing one individual to perform both jobs. JPMorgan expects to defeat the proposal, a person familiar with the situation told The Wall Street Journal. Even if shareholders back the non-binding resolution, board members won't strip Dimon, 56, of his chairmanship, another person told the newspaper. Dimon has been chief executive since 2005 and chairman since 2006. Other resolutions shareholders were to vote on included proposals on political contributions, controversial investments in Sudan and executive compensation, including Dimon's $23 million pay package, the company said. President Barack Obama used the losses Monday to argue for stricter Wall Street regulation. At a taping of ABC-TV's daytime talk show "The View," he said: "This is one of the best managed banks. You could have a bank that isn't as strong ... and we might have had to step in. That's why Wall Street reform is so important." Dimon is "one of the smartest bankers we got," Obama said, "and they still lost $2 billion and counting."