J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned employees not to seek advantage from competitors'”alleged issues” after a former Goldman Sachs banker sparked a firestorm by charging that Goldman managing directors saw clients merely as tools for churing profits. Dimon’s memo to Asia market employees was reportedly placed in their e-mail
inboxes on Thursday morning according to
Reuters, and apparently implored staff to focus on their own bank’s
standards amid the furore stirred after ex-Goldman banker Greg
Smith published a scorn-filled resignation letter.
“Today’s New York Times op-ed by a Goldman Sachs executive
is generating a lot of discussion around the street,” Dimon
said. “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.”
Dimon’s message was sent to the bank’s global operating committee and later forwarded to wider parts of J.P. Morgan,
sources who have seen the memo said. J.P. Morgan declined to comment on the memo.
Goldman was placed on the offensive Wednesday when the London-based Smith published his resignation letter in the opinion section of the New York Times, calling the Wall Street bank a “toxic and destructive” place.
“It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping
their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five
different managing directors refer to their own clients as
‘muppets,'” said the letter by Smith, who worked in equity
derivatives.
Goldman said in an official response issued internally Wednesday to eemployees, that the bank disagreed with the views expressed, “which we don’t think
reflect the way we run our business.”
“By now, many of you have read the submission in today’s New York Times by a former employee of the firm,” Lloyd C. Blankfein and Gary D. Cohn wrote. “Needless to say, we were disappointed to read the assertions made by this individual that do not reflect our values, our culture and how the vast majority of people at Goldman Sachs think about the firm and the work it does on behalf of our clients.”
“In a company of our size, it is not shocking that some people could feel disgruntled. But that does not and should not represent our firm of more than 30,000 people. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. But, it is unfortunate that an individual opinion about Goldman Sachs is amplified in a newspaper and speaks louder than the regular, detailed and intensive feedback you have provided the firm and independent, public surveys of workplace environments.”
“While I expect you find the words you read today foreign from your own day-to-day experiences, we wanted to remind you what we, as a firm – individually and collectively – think about Goldman Sachs and our client-driven culture.”
Rather than addressing the issue of where clients stand in the pecking order, Goldman Sachs goes on to write about how employees are happy at the firm and have an official outlet for airing their concerns.