In a Thursday afternoon conference call, J.P. Morgan Chase Chief Executive James Dimon announced an estimated $2 billion in losses over six weeks, news that could have a significant impact on the fight over the forthcoming Volcker Rule, which limits how banks can invest deposited money, according to reports.
“These were egregious mistakes,” Dimon said on the call, The New York Times reported. “They were self-inflicted and this is not how we want to run a business.”
Dimon has overseen a rise in the "size and risk of its speculative bets" over the past five years, Bloomberg reported last month. He also acknowledged on Thursday that the news could help proponents of the Volcker Rule, saying it "plays right into the hands of a bunch of pundits out there. But that's life," according to a tweet from New York Times business reporter Kevin Roose.
The Volcker Rule is scheduled to be implemented this July, though Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said that regulators will likely need more time to get it in place. Banks complain that the rule would increase risk and be difficult to enforce.
Dimon described the operations that led to the loss as "poorly executed" and "poorly monitored," The Wall Street Journal reported. That newspaper also described the loss as "a black eye" for the nation's largest bank.
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