JPMorgan Will Stop Marketing Interest-Rate Swaps
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JPMorgan Chase & Co., under investigation in a federal antitrust probe of derivative sales in the $2.6 trillion municipal bond market, will stop marketing products such as interest-rate swaps to municipalities, saying the business isn’t making enough money.
The bank, which will still arrange derivatives for non- profit organizations and sell commodity derivatives to municipalities, said it will tighten employee compliance policies and training, according to an internal memo.
“The risk/return profile of this business is such that the returns no longer justify the level of resources we have allocated to it,” JPMorgan’s head of rates, foreign exchange and municipal bonds, wrote Matt Zames, “As an industry leader, we believe that we have an opportunity to set a new standard around controls.”
American prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission have been searching for more than a year for evidence of rigged bidding and other misconduct by banks that sell investments and derivatives tied to municipal bonds, targeting at least seven former JPMorgan bankers.