A Look at JP Morgan's Directors' Business Connections

In an effort to shore up its balance sheets after billions were siphoned off from bad mortgages, JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) will raise “$6 billion in its biggest offering of perpetual preferred stock”, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

"New York-based JPMorgan, the third-biggest bank in the U.S., has posted about $10 billion of asset writedowns and credit losses since the start of the subprime-mortgage turmoil early last year," the Bloomberg article reported.

Regulatory law requires all banks to maintain capital reserves at a certain level in order to remain solvent if borrowers default on their loans.

The JPMorgan Board of Directors could have decided that by raising the $6 billion in preferred stock and recapitalizing the banks now that it would help to keep the financial markets from becoming too panicky over recent losses.

The markets are likely to greet the Directors’ decision as a responsible and positive one.

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NewsVisual decided to create an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map in order to illustrate the business connections of JP Morgan’s Board of Directors as a method for assessing their knowledge of corporate financial issues.

The Knowledge Map shows that six of the bank’s Directors currently serve on other corporate boards.

Most noteworthy is Director William H Gray III, who is also a Director for Dell Computer Corp, Pfizer Inc, Prudential Financial Inc, and Visteon Corp.

Likewise, the following three Morgan Directors are noteworthy for serving on more than one other corporate board:

Director James S Crown is also a Director for General Dynamics Corp and Sara Lee Corp; Director Ellen V Futter is also a Director for American International Group Inc and Consolidated Edison Inc; and Director Robert I Lipp is also a Director for Accenture Ltd and The Travelers Companies Inc.

Click here for an interactive version of this IntellectSpace Knowledge Map.

(Note: the information contained and presented in Knowledge Maps is public information from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America).