Corporate law

Even though JP Morgan agreed to pay nearly $1 billion in fines for its conduct in the 'London Whale' incident in which the bank’s chief investment officer lost more than $6 billion and then regulators were misled about the losses, the investment bank's legal troubles appear to be far from over. The New York Times' DealB%k Blog reports there is "an unusual wave of scrutiny for JPMorgan, which is now facing investigations from at least seven federal agencies, several state regulators and two foreign nations. The investigations span across the bank. Its mortgage business, debt collection practices and its hiring of the children of well-connected Chinese officials are all under fire in Washington."

The New York Times has this interesting profile of JPMorgan's general counsel, Stephen M. Cutler, who has talked tough in the past on the importance of compliance with financial rules and regulations but on whose watch "JPMorgan had agreed to admit wrongdoing and pay nearly $1 billion in fines for its conduct in the 'London Whale' matter, in which the bank’s chief investment office lost more than $6 billion and bank officials misled regulators about the losses."

The Washington Post reports the Securities and Exchange Commission split 3-2 along party lines to require publicly traded corporations with more than $1 billion in revenues or $75 million in publicly traded securities to disclose the rate of their chief executives' pay in relation to the pay of a valid statistical sample of their workforce around the globe. Proponents say the measure will give stockholders and investors more information to make informed decisions, while opponents said the measure will have too much regulatory costs for American businesses. The regulation fulfills a measure of the Dodd-Frank bill enacted over outrage over high executive pay.