Bubbly back on ice at JP Morgan Chase | FT

JP Morgan Chase's board was last year so pleased with the progress of the merger that created the company in late 2000 that it handed out tens of million of dollars in special bonuses to senior executives.

William Harrison, chairman and chief executive, was awarded $10m - plus restricted stock units that will be profitable if the company's share price improves - in July 2001 for "structuring and implementing" the merger.

The co-heads of investment banking at the time, Geoff Boisi and Don Layton, were awarded $5m each, as was Marc Shapiro, a vice-chairman.

However, the company's third-quarter earnings report last week raised the possibility that the board had indulged in some premature celebration. JP Morgan's earnings fell 91 per cent to $40m and the bank revealed a new round of 2,000 job cuts in investment banking. This led some analysts to wonder about the strategic rationale for Chase Manhattan's $32bn purchase of JP Morgan in December 2000. more