The war on banks has not been without its hilarious moments; JPMorgan provides another example:
JPMorgan Chase & Co. intern had poor grades at the Wharton School. His supervisor in Asia told colleagues that “he’s not really built” for investment banking. He had “attitude issues,” had trouble “following basic rules” and was a prolific napper. Yet in 2010 he was offered a full-time job, over the reservations of some executives.
Those details emerged on Thursday as JPMorgan agreed to pay about $264 million to settle U.S. allegations that it hired children of Chinese decision-makers to win business in violation of anti-bribery laws. Investigators described a systematic effort to curry favor with government officials and business executives.
The Wharton student’s father was an executive of a Taiwanese company offering an $800 million transaction to the bank. In an e-mail, one banker wrote, “The quid pro quo is an analyst job for his son.
The government’s 21-page agreement with JPMorgan ended an almost three-year investigation that set off a debate on Wall Street over whether U.S. business standards should be applied in foreign countries and whether favors to influential officials amounted to criminal activity.
U.S. officials said JPMorgan employees at the bank’s Hong Kong subsidiary sought to maximize profits by providing jobs and internships to children of individuals it hoped to do business with. In spite of a company policy prohibiting such quid pro quo, employees kept a spreadsheet that tracked the recruits and the revenue attributable to each one — and then doctored or altered paperwork about the hiring activity “to conceal the corrupt arrangement.” In all, the bank generated at least $35 million in profits as a result of those hires, U.S. officials said.
This is exactly how business is done in the West, except that we’re more adept at nodding and winking. Just ask Trust Fund Johnnie, Mayor of Toronto, about his long and arduous ascent to the executive ranks at Rogers.
I can just imagine the scenes at the prosecuting attorney’s offices … all those well paid government lackeys who got their jobs – and their entry to law school, and their partnerships at spiffy law firms – strictly on merit, dammit, strictly on merit, with just a little help from Daddykins, having apoplectic rages about horrific corruption. Of course, a lot of that is covered up by a disingenuous pleading that it’s because the hoi polloi wear brown shoes.
There’s plenty of merit in the financial services industry – more, now, with the rise of high frequency trading – but trust me, there’s no shortage of nods and winks either.
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
|||||||
| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.4560 % | 1,747.6 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.4560 % | 3,192.5 |
| Floater | 4.29 % | 4.46 % | 47,153 | 16.44 | 4 | 0.4560 % | 1,839.8 |
| OpRet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.4972 % | 2,907.4 |
| SplitShare | 4.85 % | 4.27 % | 49,421 | 2.04 | 6 | 0.4972 % | 3,472.1 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.4972 % | 2,709.1 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.45 % | 5.07 % | 79,578 | 14.40 | 23 | 0.0682 % | 2,654.9 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.38 % | 5.38 % | 93,432 | 14.86 | 15 | 0.1428 % | 2,783.3 |
| FixedReset | 4.94 % | 4.61 % | 204,013 | 6.85 | 94 | -0.0649 % | 2,066.3 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 5.13 % | 5.41 % | 135,729 | 4.51 | 32 | 0.2959 % | 2,754.6 |
| FloatingReset | 2.82 % | 3.62 % | 41,973 | 4.89 | 12 | 0.0043 % | 2,301.0 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| TRP.PR.G | FixedReset | -3.17 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2046-11-18 Maturity Price : 19.85 Evaluated at bid price : 19.85 Bid-YTW : 4.83 % |
| RY.PR.M | FixedReset | -2.01 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2046-11-18 Maturity Price : 19.51 Evaluated at bid price : 19.51 Bid-YTW : 4.52 % |
| BAM.PF.G | FixedReset | -1.43 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2046-11-18 Maturity Price : 20.63 Evaluated at bid price : 20.63 Bid-YTW : 4.76 % |
| CM.PR.Q | FixedReset | -1.35 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2046-11-18 Maturity Price : 20.47 Evaluated at bid price : 20.47 Bid-YTW : 4.49 % |
| SLF.PR.H | FixedReset | -1.27 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 16.33 Bid-YTW : 9.10 % |
| HSE.PR.A | FixedReset | 1.09 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2046-11-18 Maturity Price : 12.11 Evaluated at bid price : 12.11 Bid-YTW : 5.34 % |
| SLF.PR.E | Deemed-Retractible | 1.22 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 21.52 Bid-YTW : 6.89 % |
| SLF.PR.D | Deemed-Retractible | 1.23 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 21.35 Bid-YTW : 6.95 % |
| PWF.PR.A | Floater | 1.26 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2046-11-18 Maturity Price : 12.05 Evaluated at bid price : 12.05 Bid-YTW : 3.94 % |
| RY.PR.P | Perpetual-Premium | 1.36 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2025-02-24 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.34 Bid-YTW : 5.07 % |
| IFC.PR.C | FixedReset | 1.58 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 19.30 Bid-YTW : 7.24 % |
| TRP.PR.B | FixedReset | 1.58 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2046-11-18 Maturity Price : 12.20 Evaluated at bid price : 12.20 Bid-YTW : 4.47 % |
| SLF.PR.A | Deemed-Retractible | 1.72 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 23.01 Bid-YTW : 6.14 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| BAM.PF.I | FixedReset | 1,374,591 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2046-11-18 Maturity Price : 23.12 Evaluated at bid price : 24.95 Bid-YTW : 4.72 % |
| BNS.PR.N | Deemed-Retractible | 102,500 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2017-01-27 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.21 Bid-YTW : 2.20 % |
| MFC.PR.O | FixedReset | 67,934 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2021-06-19 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.90 Bid-YTW : 4.64 % |
| GWO.PR.I | Deemed-Retractible | 63,890 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 21.60 Bid-YTW : 6.83 % |
| BAM.PR.Z | FixedReset | 61,120 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2046-11-18 Maturity Price : 19.11 Evaluated at bid price : 19.11 Bid-YTW : 5.19 % |
| CM.PR.O | FixedReset | 55,900 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2046-11-18 Maturity Price : 19.10 Evaluated at bid price : 19.10 Bid-YTW : 4.36 % |
| There were 45 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| IFC.PR.D | FloatingReset | Quote: 19.00 – 22.50 Spot Rate : 3.5000 Average : 3.1566 YTW SCENARIO |
| EML.PR.A | FixedReset | Quote: 25.90 – 26.29 Spot Rate : 0.3900 Average : 0.2437 YTW SCENARIO |
| IAG.PR.G | FixedReset | Quote: 20.01 – 20.44 Spot Rate : 0.4300 Average : 0.3057 YTW SCENARIO |
| RY.PR.M | FixedReset | Quote: 19.51 – 19.82 Spot Rate : 0.3100 Average : 0.1997 YTW SCENARIO |
| BAM.PR.T | FixedReset | Quote: 15.96 – 16.28 Spot Rate : 0.3200 Average : 0.2158 YTW SCENARIO |
| HSE.PR.C | FixedReset | Quote: 19.63 – 19.96 Spot Rate : 0.3300 Average : 0.2440 YTW SCENARIO |