More Management Changes at J.P. Morgan

One more of Jamie Dimon's key aides at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) has been caught in the reorganization that began with a multibillion trading loss at the firm's London office. The Wall Street Journal reports the Chief Financial Officer Douglas Braunstein will change jobs.

Braunstein was involved, the paper reports, with the buyout of Bear Stearns, which has come back to haunt the bank. Bear created and sold mortgage-related paper that was part of the start of the financial crisis. The federal government has begun to scrutinized those activities, which could cause J.P. Morgan trouble and cost it in fines.

The shuffling and dismissal of executives so close to Dimon means that the heat is on him to justify his own role in trading losses and M&A. He can say, perhaps fairly, that those directly under him made most of the mistake. However, so far, in public he has admitted "the buck stops here." But the more people at J.P. Morgan who quit their jobs, the more its appears that Dimon wants to protect himself from the impressions that he was involved enough in the catastrophes to be pushed out.

Douglas A. McIntyre