Courtesy of Larry Doyle.
Little surprise that Jamie Dimon will remain as both CEO and chairman of JP Morgan.
I mean was there really any doubt? There wasn’t.
While shareholder groups might pretend that they can exert influence over the management of large corporations and especially banks, there is little of meaningful resemblance to a democratic process in proxy voting.
Disgruntled individual shareholders can try to rally the troops and force change but with an institution such as JP Morgan, who really carries the weight?
The largest institutional shareholders. Who are they?
Top Institutional Holders
Vanguard Group, Inc.
State Street Corporation
BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A.
Wellington Management Company, LLP
FMR, LLC (Fidelity)
Price (T.Rowe) Associates Inc
Northern Trust Corporation
Bank of New York Mellon Corporation
Capital World Investors
Massachusetts Financial Services Co.
These ten institutions collectively own approximately 25% of JP Morgan’s outstanding shares.
Do you think Jamie may have reached out to the respective heads of these institutions to tell them how much he wanted to remain in complete control of JPM? You think? Of course he did. Do you think these respective heads may have voiced some of their wants and needs to Jamie? Come on. Of course. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. That is how the game is played.
What about the following issues, though?
London whale: tempest in a teapot, right?
Money laundering in the midst of the Madoff operations at JPM: why bother bringing that up?
Manipulation of the electricity markets in selected states: should we simply disregard as many are wont to do?
Blythe Masters lying to regulators: leave the women and children alone, perhaps?
Rigging Libor: are we still talking about this issue?
All yesterday’s news, right? Perhaps in a world of captured regulators and a banking oligopoly these stories may be easily dismissed but they do little to inspire any sort of trust or confidence on behalf of individual investors and consumers. But the little people only get a token voice when it comes to addressing who really runs the show inside our major financial institutions.
In the incestuous dynamic of Wall Street and Washington, King Jamie and his court really run the world and we just get to live in it.
Navigate accordingly.
Larry Doyle
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I have no business interest with any entity referenced in this commentary. The opinions expressed are my own. I am a proponent of real transparency within our markets so that investor confidence and investor protection can be achieved.
