This week, Jamie Dimon, the world’s most admired banker, celebrated with construction workers at the opening of JP Morgan Chase’s gleaming new $3billion (£2.2billion) headquarters in New York.
The 60-storey building, designed by Britain’s Foster + Partners, will house 14,000 colleagues and includes a public plaza.
Vanity headquarters, in the past, have been regarded with suspicion. Fred Goodwin’s glass tribute act for Royal Bank of Scotland at Gogarburn in Edinburgh is a pitiful legacy from when it was briefly the biggest bank on Earth.
Away from the hoopla around the opening, JP Morgan is defend itself against allegations that it enabled and enriched Jeffrey Epstein’s sex offending operations.
Epstein is rarely out of the headlines. New details of his sleazy relationships with His Majesty’s ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, are emerging daily.
Analysis by the New York Times (NYT), having combed through 13,000 pages of legal and financial records, has established a JP Morgan relationship with Epstein far deeper than previously recognised.
Transactions: JP Morgan Chase is currently having to defend itself against allegations that the bank enabled and enriched Jeffrey Epstein’s sex offending operations
When Epstein was sexually abusing teenagers, JP Morgan processed 4,700 transactions for him with a value of $1.1billion (£815million).
Among the debits were payments to mysterious Russian and eastern European accounts. The bank reportedly also opened accounts for some of Epstein’s victims and helpers.
The main conduit was former Barclays boss Jes Staley. He was a regular visitor to Epstein’s properties – even when the disgraced financier was under house arrest.
He consulted Epstein for personal financial advice and Epstein connected Staley to an expert on China.
JP Morgan pins blame for its Epstein relationship on Staley. Documents examined by the NYT show that on at least four occasions bosses at JP Morgan were alerted to concerns about Epstein but failed to de-bank him.
Dimon says that he barely knew Epstein. When the JP Morgan chairman sought to warn Barclays about the risk of appointing Staley as chief executive, he was not given enough time of day by former chairman John McFarlane.
Epstein, who died six years ago, casts a baleful shadow over public and financial lives.
Weston wrath
Associated British Foods, best known as owner of Primark, is an exemplar of what public companies should be.
At Primark it sells no-frills clothing at low prices and employs disadvantaged people, including former prisoners and youngsters from problem backgrounds.
It is a food production powerhouse, from farm to fork, in for the long-term and willing to ride out the volatile sugar market.
And it was one of only a handful of UK firms to embrace the bioethanol fuel revolution. Yet chief executive George Weston finds a path strewn with obstacles.
Last year Primark was badly hurt by speculation in the run-up to the Budget and the employer National Insurance rise. It now fears the same adverse fall-out in the November 26 Budget.
Weston thinks there are some good things in the Employment Rights Bill about security of tenure.
But he fears the effect on his company’s ability to take on extra people at busy times and Primark’s ability to dismiss unsuitable employees.
He is hugely disdainful of Whitehall. A lack of attention to the contribution which Vivergo and its innovative bioethanol plant was making to Labour’s green agenda meant it had to shut its doors.
It was stifled by regulation, energy costs and a lack of financial support. That has contributed to a £200million write-off.
Despite tricky UK and European conditions, Primark is going great guns in the US. Not surprisingly, 2025-26 profits are unlikely to hit last year’s £2billion heights.
Silver surfer
At 81, Larry Ellison is a different generation to tech bros of the Magnificent Seven.
Over the decades, the founder of the US-based Oracle software – a cloud and AI powerhouse – has held on to 41 per cent of the equity.
A big rise in the share price this week added £200billion to its valuation and elevated his wealth to £300billion.
Eat your heart out, Elon!
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