Bank CEO slammed for 'boastful' Christmas card

UNITED STATES - The Christmas card was supposed to generate some festive goodwill at JPMorgan Chase, one of the four biggest banks in the US.

The card, sent by the bank's chief executive Mr Jamie Dimon, 57, shows him swinging his tennis racquet in his palatial home in New York as his wife Judy and their three daughters laugh and look relaxed in the background.

They seem unconcerned that in the room are expensive ornaments, vases, glass and paintings which could easily be ruined if a tennis ball went flying through them, the Mail Online reported.

The Atlantic magazine slammed it as "braggy and opulent", while Time magazine said it was "maddeningly tone-deaf".

Comedian Stephen Colbert joked that Mr Dimon committed a basic error and that his "Christmas card should have been him weeping alone on a pile of money clutching a sled".

Mr Dimon earns about US$18.7 million (S$23.7 million) a year, making him one of the highest-paid CEOs in the US. Not everybody was running down the concept behind the card.

Mr Alan Towers, a senior adviser at Water & Wall Group, a reputation-management firm, told Marketwatch that he thought that Mr Dimon's Christmas card was designed to show him as a family man.

He said: "The photo shows a surprising side of Mr Dimon many people would respect: Creative, unconcerned with formality in his private life and able to enjoy his family even when under intense public scrutiny.

"This doesn't look like a ruthless CEO. Instead, it depicts a very human father and husband letting his hair down."

In October, JPMorgan agreed a US$13 billion deal with the US government to end investigations into its selling of mortgage investments in the 2008 financial crisis.

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