JPMorgan Chase CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon gestures as he speaks during the US Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee oversight hearing on Wall Street firms, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, December 6, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
JPMorgan Chase has created a new global role that oversees all junior bankers in an effort to better manage their workload following the death of a Bank of America In May, a study forced Wall Street to examine how it treats its youngest employees.
The firm named Ryland McClendon as its global investment banking associate and lead analyst in a memo sent this month, CNBC has learned.
Associates and analysts sit at the bottom two rungs of the Wall Street hierarchy in investment banking and trading; recent college graduates flock to these positions for the high salaries and opportunities they can offer.
The memo specifically stated that McClendon, a 14-year JPMorgan veteran and former banker who was previously head of talent and career development, would support the “well-being and success” of junior bankers.
The move shows how JPMorgan, the largest U.S. investment bank by revenue, is responding to the latest untimely death on Wall Street. In May, Bank of America's Leo Lukenas III died after reportedly working 100 hours a week on a bank merger. Later that month, JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said his bank was examining what it could learn from the tragedy.
Then, starting in August, JPMorgan senior managers instructed their investment banking teams that junior bankers should typically work no more than 80 hours, part of a renewed focus on tracking their workload, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
Exceptions can be made for live transactions, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing internal policy.
Dimon's warning
Dimon criticized some of Wall Street's entrenched practices at a financial conference Tuesday at Georgetown University. Some of the hours junior bankers work are simply a function of inefficiency or tradition, rather than necessity, he said.
“A lot of investment bankers have been traveling all week, they come home and they give you four assignments, and you have to work all weekend,” Dimon said. “It's just not right.”
Senior bankers would be held accountable if their analysts and associates systematically stumbled upon the policy, he said.
“You're breaking the law,” Dimon warned. “You need to stop doing this and you'll get it in your bonus, so people know we mean it.”
