Fearful of government fines for money laundering and increased compliance burden, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) is closing the accounts of current and former foreign government officials, the Financial Times reported Tuesday. The larger issue isn’t government tightening the screws on money laundering concerns, in the wake of HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HSBC)’s repeat offense of laundering money for drug cartels and terrorists. According to Rafferty Capital Markets analyst Dick Bove, the government is “committed to breaking the company.” On closing the diplomat’s bank accounts, “the linkage here is clear,” Bove writes in an update today. “The bank is moving as…
JPMorgan Closes 3,500 Foreign Accounts: What Is The Real Reason?
Mark Melin
Mark Melin is an alternative investment practitioner whose specialty is recognizing the impact of beta market environment on a technical trading strategy. A portfolio and industry consultant, wrote or edited three books including High Performance Managed Futures (Wiley 2010) and The Chicago Board of Trade’s Handbook of Futures and Options (McGraw-Hill 2008) and taught a course at Northwestern University's executive education program.