JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon scrapes home in vote to strip him of title

The chief executive of JP Morgan yesterday survived a shareholder push to strip him of the title of chairman of the board, just five days after he disclosed a $2 billion (£1.2bn) trading loss by one of the bank’s traders in London

Jamie Dimon also won a shareholder endorsement of his pay package from last year, which totalled $23 million.

Dimon, unusually subdued, told shareholders at the JP Morgan annual meeting that the company’s mistakes were “self-inflicted”. Speaking to reporters later, he added: “The buck always stops with me.”

Most of the shareholder ballots were cast in the weeks before Dimon revealed the loss.

His pay package passed with 91 per cent of the vote. The vote to strip him of his chairman’s title won 40 per cent support.

Dimon was confronted at the meeting by shareholders upset about the trading loss, which has rattled investor confidence in the bank and complicated JP Morgan’s efforts to fight tougher regulation of Wall Street.

Dimon received a vote of confidence from US President Barack Obama, who appeared on ABC’s The View last night.

“JP Morgan is one of the best-managed banks there is,” Obama said. “Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of the smartest bankers we got, and they still lost $2bn and counting.”

Obama said the bank was “making bets” in the market for the complex financial instruments known as derivatives. Dimon has said the bank was hedging against financial risk.

Meanwhile, a source claimed that the New York office of the FBI had opened an investigation into the trading loss.