Ex-JPMorgan executive Drew says does not deserve blame for losses
Ina Drew, the former JPMorgan Chase & Co executive in charge of the unit that harbored the disastrous "London Whale" trades, said on Friday that she does not bear personal responsibility for the losses, and instead blamed others for deceiving her.
Drew, the former Chief Investment Officer, said in testimony before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that risk models were severely flawed and that some members of the London trading team misvalued positions and hid important risk information from her.
"I believe that my oversight of the synthetic credit portfolio, including during 2012, was reasonable and diligent," Drew said. "I have since come to learn - based on the company's public statements in July 2012 and Task Force Report in January of this year - that valuations for many of the book's positions were inflated and not calculated or reported in good faith."
She said: "Needless to say, I had no knowledge of these things at the time."
The Senate issued a report on Thursday finding that JPMorgan ignored risks, misled investors, fought with regulators and tried to work around rules as it dealt with mushrooming losses in a derivatives portfolio.
(Reporting By Karey Van Hall; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)