Skip to main content

News Tip: No Need for More Regulation in Aftermath of JPMorgan $2 Billion Loss

Seth Gardner, executive director of Fuqua's Center for Financial Excellence, says 'reckless risk-taking' likely cause 

Seth GardnerExecutive director of the Center for Financial Excellence, Duke University's Fuqua School of Businesshttp://www.fuqua.duke.edu/cfe/about/team/team/seth-gardner/ Gardner, who joined Fuqua in 2009, worked from 2003 to 2009 at Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. in New York City, where he was a managing director in the private equity group and responsible for sourcing, evaluating, structuring and negotiating private equity transactions. Quote:"It does not appear that the losses incurred by JPMorgan Chase (JPM) were caused by reckless risk-taking. The hedge was intended to reduce risk. The fact that it failed is not, by itself, a systemic issue."Absent evidence suggesting that JPM knowingly flouted prudential risk management practices, we should refrain from reflexively citing a poorly designed and executed hedge as a call to arms for more regulation. Sometimes even well-intentioned people just get it wrong and no refinement of regulation can prevent that from happening again."