JPMorgan staff warned not to profit from Goldman furore

Investment bank JPMorgan tried to contain damage to Wall Street’s reputation by telling staff not to try to profit from rival Goldman Sachs’s embarrassment over a vitriolic resignation letter published in the New York Times.

Equity derivatives salesman Greg Smith caused a firestorm across the banking industry on Wednesday with the letter, published as an opinion column and calling Goldman a “toxic” place to work where senior staff saw clients as “muppets”.

JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon warned employees in an internal memo not to seek advantage from Goldman’s “alleged issues”, imploring them to focus on standards, not on the furore stirred by Mr Smith in what media and bloggers have called “Muppetgate”.

“I want to be clear that I don’t want anyone here to seek advantage from a competitor’s alleged issues or hearsay – ever. It’s not the way we do business,” Mr Dimon said in the memo.

Sources at banks including Citi, Credit Suisse and Nomura said they were not aware of any memo similar to Mr Dimon’s at their respective firms. – (Reuters)