JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon owns up for trading loss, now faces shareholder challenge

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon owned up to stock analysts and went on TV to accept blame for a $2 billion trading mistake . Next he faces shareholders, who are considerably less wealthy since the blunder was disclosed.

While Dimon may be greeted by colorful protesters and tough questions at the JPMorgan annual meeting on Tuesday, shareholders are unlikely to call for his head.

For them, facing the crisis without Dimon might be a bigger nightmare than the trading loss itself.

"When a bank is dealing with this sort of a challenge, you want someone of his caliber to shepherd it through," said longtime JPMorgan shareholder Michael Holland, chairman and founder of money manager Holland & Co.

That has not been a universal opinion since Thursday, when Dimon disclosed to analysts that the bank had lost $2 billion by making a bad bet with so-called credit derivatives.

Investors lopped almost 10 per cent off JPMorgan's stock price the next day, and 3 per cent more on Monday. Since Dimon made the announcement, almost $20 billion in market value has evaporated.

Over the weekend, Elizabeth Warren, architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a Senate candidate from Massachusetts, called for Dimon to give up his board seat at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

And on Monday, White House press secretary Jay Carney, without singling out Dimon, said that Washington can't prevent "bad decisions being made on Wall Street."

He pointed out that it was the bank and its shareholders, not bailout-weary taxpayers, who were suffering this time.

Dimon will be talking to shareholders from a position of weakness for the first time. He has built a reputation as a cost-cutting zealot and an expert at keeping risk under control.

He led JPMorgan into a stronger position than almost any other bank after the 2008 financial crisis, which brought him more praise than at any other time in his career.

Shareholders rarely lash out against Dimon. His reputation has been severely damaged now. But shareholders still appear to believe Dimon should be given the chance to prove himself again.

He still holds a reputation as the man who restored Bank One to a profit a decade ago when few thought it was possible and who kept JPMorgan Chase profitable through the financial crisis by managing its risk.

And while $2 billion was a stunning figure, as the investor reaction demonstrates, JPMorgan is more than big enough to absorb the loss. The bank made $19 billion last year alone.