How Chase helps make people homeless

A reader writes:

So sorry to read all this. I have been a Chase customer for many years and even had my mortgage with them. We decided to buy another house and thought to go with Chase. They pre-approved us for the amount and we got the paper going. I live with my elderly parents, husband and a 11 month old baby. Everything went as planned and one of the condition was to sell our current resident. We had to sign the selling documents a day prior to signing the purchasing documents. We went and sold over our primary resident and getting ready the next morning to go to the Escrow to sign the purchase. Escrow calls the morning of and says we are unable to get hold of Chase and no documents are in. We call Chase and they have more conditions. They had us close our credit cards that had no balance except for miles and points. It was clear that they wanted us to close the rival banks. They never asked us to close their credit cards. We had no choice as we had sold our house and were going to become
homeless with our at that time 11-month old child. I was scared because I did not know where we I will keep them. After closing the cards, there were more conditions, one after another and closing dates got pushed out. First it was May 1st, then May 5th, and so on. On May 15th, my family became homeless. We lived in hotels one after another from town to town due to a concert and there were no space more than a week. My 11-month old and 67-year old parents were homeless with my husband and I. Chase never contacted us after that even though we contacted them hour after hour, crying and begging. Our wonderful real estate agent put us in touch with a God sent mortgage broker who got us approved and in the house in just 10-days as promised. I will never forgive Chase customer service people for treating us like this and for putting my family on the street for 2.5 weeks until we signed the papers with another bank. At least they should have the guts to say no we cannot do this loan. To
date no one from Chase called or wrote to us saying they cannot do this loan. We are living happily in the same house we wanted to buy with Chase after spending $1000’s in hotels and food to keep my family off of the street. Now I know how people end up homeless…

The JP Morgan Chase smoking gun

Proof that JP Morgan Chase knowingly peddled mortgage-backed securities by overstating their value (WSJ, J.P. Morgan Insider Helps U.S. in Probe, 10/1/13).

Justice Department lawyers are emboldened by documents, uncovered in the course of their investigation, that point to J.P. Morgan knowingly peddling mortgage-backed securities whose underlying loans were of lesser quality than pitched to investors, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Bad Boy Chase part Deux

In addition to our post a couple of days ago about all of JP Morgan Chase’s recent transgressions and the price they are paying for it (and how their internal greed makes them generally unsuitable as a consumer bank choice), the latest bad news for Chase (WSJ J.P. Morgan Chief Meets with Holder 9/27/13) is the price they are paying for fleecing customers with bogus mortgage backed securities in the mid 2000’s.

Chase tried to weasel out of their troubles with a measly $3 billion offer which was quickly rejected, and has now only a day later, grown to $11 billion, and will likely grow more as they try to include liabilities from other lawsuits related to the crappy mortgage backed securities they passed off to unsuspecting investors.

Time again to ask yourself if this is the kind of bank you want to do business with.

Bad Boy Chase

Chase has been getting a lot of (well deserved) bad press lately, so much so that I can’t keep track.  Here is a quick primer.

It’s been accused by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a group of 13 states, and now Massachusetts is investigating it for its debt collection practices (WSJ: Massachusetts Propse J.P. Morgan’s Debt-Collection Practices, 9/22/13).

The OCC said the bank and its outside lawyers allegedly filed inaccurate documents in court, didn’t properly notarize documents and made statements about the accuracy of documents that hadn’t been verified. The regulator ordered the bank to notify consumers in the future when their debt was being sold to a third party, to properly maintain account documents and to ensure employees and other staff involved in litigation had required information.

In May of this year California also accused Chase of bad debt collection practices.

California filed a lawsuit in May accusing J.P. Morgan of “fraudulent” and “unlawful” methods in its pursuit of old debts from 100,000 borrowers in the state. The bank hasn’t commented on that suit, which is pending.

Among the practices in question is pursuing people for debts after they filed for bankruptcy (and presumably lying to them that they were still responsible for the debt when actually they were not).

Chase also agreed this week to pay an $80 million fine over allegations related to products sold to credit-card holders (WSJ: J.P. Morgan Settles Consumer Cases, 9/19/13).

Then lets not forget the London Whale fiasco (Wikipedia), a failed effort to pursue huge profits through proprietary trading (trading for their own, not customers, good).  Given how much Chase seems to be into lines of business that line their own pockets, one has to wonder if they even come close to honoring the fiduciary responsibility they have to their customers.  Regulators have since lambasted Chase’s senior management (WSJ: SEC Calls Out JP Morgan Management More than 100 Times, 9/19/13) for a lack of internal controls (they did whatever they wanted).  Jamie Dimon seems to have basically lied when he initially announced the London Whale losses, claiming they were only $2 billion.  In the end they were over $6 billion.

Back in July it became apparent that JP Morgan Chase was one of the bank responsible for hoarding commodities to drive up prices (JPMorgan to quit physical commodity trade amid scrutiny 7/26/13).

Most recently the group’s investment in warehousing firm Henry Bath has been attacked by metals consumers for distorting markets and driving up prices. The Department of Justice and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission have also both launched probes into metal warehousing.

If that isn’t enough, they are also accused of manipulating the power market (Enron anyone?) and have a greed to pay a $410 million fine (JPMorgan Accused of Energy-Market Manipulation by U.S. Agency, 7/29/13).

The FERC staff said in today’s allegations, announced by e-mail, that the bank’s energy-trading unit was involved in five market-gaming strategies in California from September 2010 to June 2011. The company engaged in three gaming strategies in the Midwest from October 2010 to May 2011, the staff said.

Wonder why your electric bill is so high? Among other things, blame Chase.

Still think your money is safe with Chase?  Think again. They don’t care about little banking customers, they are all about the big profits for themselves.

JP Morgan Chase limits employee’s personal trading activity

JPMC recently sent an internal memo to all employees stating they can no longer buy or sell stocks (jpmc stock or any other) in their own personal (non-jpmc related) portfolio except from a jpmc pre-approved list of designated brokers. Same applies to employee’s spouse, significant other or any person that employee is financially caring for.

Also, stocks cannot be sold for 30 days after purchase, even if stock owner witnesses stock in rapid loss decline.

Also, ALL personal stocks purchases and sales (even non-JPMC stock) must be pre-approved by JPMorgan Chase.

All of this forces employees to move their existing portfolios to an approved trading company so that jpmc can monitor all trading activity even that of non-jpmc stocks.

Chase and Free Checking

In 2011/2012 as the government was implementing a number of policies that affected banks, (like limiting what banks could charge merchants for debit card charge processing), most banks complained that the hit to profits would force them to no longer offer free checking, and they changed their policies so that many if not most customers were no longer eligible for free checking accounts.  Chase of course was one of the first and worst to do this.

Fast forward to today.  Chase’s last fiscal year included record profits of $20 billion, about half of which CAME FROM RETAIL BANKING.  So it would seem that Chase is doing just fine and could be offering free checking just like they used to.

Remember, you are giving a bank your money to play with while you aren’t using it.  This is how they get much of their capital to fund loans and to do their own proprietary trading activities (i.e. London Whale).  If a bank wants you to pay for the privilege of allowing them to use your money, it is time to find another bank.

How Chase treats its employees

From a reader.

I’ve been working for JPMC for numerous years and, after every business trip I am asked take, my expense report is scrutinized by upper management with the end result being many of my LEGITIMATE expenses (according to current company policy) getting DENIED. This, in turn, results in me having to pay for the denied single-persom meals and other modest expenses out of my pay.

I checked the board of labor and similar websites, including JPMorganChase site, and they all agree that the expenses I incurred are legitimate and eligible for reimbursement. But, because a particular JPMC executive whose initials are EZ feels like it, the expenses in question are denied. While not an exec, I do hold an important position and title with the firm. Yet, after countless discussions with management above me, the spineless cowards refuse to question why EZ is denying something that ALL AGREE is counter to written expense policy. I can’t refuse to go on these trips, without putting my job at risk. And EZ knows this as well.

Clearly JPMC bullies their employees, even over trivial and modest expense reports. This place truly is getting worse with each passing year.

Chase employee love

From inside the nest:

2013 – Chase adopts a new internal “expenses” policy which dictates that (for example), if an employee spills coffee on a company laptop or other device, the employee shall be financially responsible for the damage.

I doubt this is legally feasible ….  but it’s yet another example of how Jamie Dimon hates his employees. Couple this news with January’s 1-2% raises (if you got one at all) and you can see why most employees I’ve candidly spoken with hate this place as much as the next person.