(Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co. will pay $4 million to settle a U.S. regulator’s claims that the company misled private-bank customers about how its brokers were paid.
The bank falsely stated on its website and in marketing materials that employee compensation was based on clients’ performance and that no commissions were paid, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement Wednesday. The misstatements weren’t corrected until May 2012 even though employees pointed out the inaccuracies more than a year earlier, the SEC said.
Customers were misled “into believing their brokers had skin in the game and were being compensated based on the success of customer portfolios” when in fact none of the factors used in determining pay was tied to portfolio performance, SEC enforcement chief Andrew Ceresney said in the agency’s statement. Brokers were paid salary and discretionary bonuses “based on a number of other factors,” the SEC said.
JPMorgan resolved the allegations without admitting or denying wrongdoing, the SEC said.