'Dead wrong' Jamie Dimon: 4 takeaways from the banker's Senate testimony

The chief of banking giant JPMorgan Chase apologizes for a $2 billion trading loss, but adamantly insists that government regulation is not the answer

JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon says the bank's board will review every single person involved in the company's $2 billion trading loss.
(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

On Wednesday, Jamie Dimon, the head of JPMorgan Chase, testified before the Senate Banking Committee and faced questions about a huge $2 billion trading loss that the bank was humiliated by in May. The loss stemmed from a complex hedging strategy involving credit default swaps — insurance-like contracts that essentially allow investors to bet on whether the value of a given asset will rise or fall. Critics charge that such recklessly risky trades fueled the financial crisis of 2008, and argue that JPMorgan's loss proves that more government regulation of Wall Street is necessary. Dimon apologized at the hearing, but remained unbowed in his conviction that President Obama's Dodd-Frank Act — which sought to overhaul the financial regulatory system — is a bad law. Here, four takeaways from Dimon's testimony:

1. Dimon admits that he was 'dead wrong'

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