At the end of last month, William Harrison, chairman and chief
executive of JPMorgan Chase, announced sweeping changes to the
senior management of the group's investment banking division.
This follows 18 months of hard struggle to wring decent financial
and stock market returns from the merger of JP Morgan and Chase.
High credit costs, private-equity losses and weak investment
banking revenues have dogged the newly combined firm. The
institution that set out to establish itself as a new breed of
global super-bank at the start of 2001 ended the year with an
anaemic cash operating return on equity of just 10%.
Morale at the firm is low, with large numbers of bankers laid off
and many more choosing to walk out. Investors have become restive,
muttering that Harrison's credibility and job may be on the line.
On May 23, Harrison acted. Out went former investment banking
co-heads Geoffrey Boisi and...
