New York (AFP) – American banking giant JPMorgan Chase expects to spend $2 billion in annual compliance costs starting in 2014, chief executive Jamie Dimon said Wednesday.
The spending is double what the bank previously projected and comes on the heels of several major settlements over alleged law and banking rules violations with regulators.
“The $2 billion for the most part is permanent,” Dimon said at a Goldman Sachs conference. “It’s not going to go away.”
Dimon said the spending would go to hire compliance staff, conduct training, employ auditors and take other steps to ensure the U.S.’ largest bank by assets operates in line with the rules.
Dimon expects overall expenses to be lower in 2014 than in 2013, in spite of the higher compliance costs. “So we will find a lot of efficiencies,” he added.
JPMorgan continues to face a number of significant civil and criminal probes ranging from its hiring of Asian staff to its sale of mortgage-backed securities ahead of the financial crisis.
In November, the bank paid a record $13 billion to settle several civil lawsuits over its sale of mortgage-backed securities.
Earlier this fall, JPMorgan also agreed to more than $1 billion in fines relating to various alleged violations stemming from the ‘London whale’ trading loss.
“We’ve got a lot of litigation… behind us,” Dimon said Wednesday. “We’ve got more to go.”
