JPMorgan gets SEC subpoenas over mutual fund sales

JPMorgan Chase & Co said it has received subpoenas from the US Securities and Exchange Commission over how it sells its mutual funds.

PHOTO: AFP

6 May5:21 PM

[NEW YORK] JPMorgan Chase & Co said it has received subpoenas from the US Securities and Exchange Commission over how it sells its mutual funds.

Other government authorities and a self-regulatory organization, apart from the SEC, are also seeking information about the bank's use of proprietary products in its wealth-management business, JPMorgan said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. The SEC's enforcement division has been looking at whether senior asset-management executives at the bank developed a policy of improperly steering clients into investments for it's own financial gain, Bloomberg reported in March.

The biggest US bank by assets said it is "responding to and cooperating with the relevant authorities." Separately, JPMorgan said French authorities have notified the bank last month they were investigating its role in transactions entered into by some senior managers of investment group Wendel Investissement between 2004 and 2007.

The bank said on Tuesday it is in "advanced stages" of settlement talks with the US Department of Justice and Federal Reserve over previously disclosed investigations into its foreign exchange trading.

REUTERS

    

US oil stocks drop for first time since January: EIA

6 May11:05 PM

[NEW YORK] US crude stocks fell last week for the first time since the week ending Jan 2, while gasoline and distillate inventories rose, data from the Energy Information Administration showed on Wednesday.

Crude inventories fell by 3.9 million barrels in the last week, compared with analysts' expectations for an increase of 1.5 million barrels.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 12,000 barrels, EIA said.

Refinery crude runs rose by 247,000 barrels per day, EIA data showed. Refinery utilization rates rose by 1.7 percentage points.

Gasoline stocks rose by 401,000 barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 867,000-barrel gain.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 1.5 million barrels, versus expectations for a 117,000-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.

US crude imports fell last week by 905,000 barrels per day.

REUTERS