London Whale Boss Wins Privacy Case Against Regulator

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has lost its appeal of a ruling that the London Whale’s boss was too identifiable in the regulator’s report on the scandal.

Achilles Macris, formerly JP Morgan’s London-based international CIO, complained in 2013 that the FCA identified him in its highly critical assessment without providing him a copy of the fine notices or the chance to defend himself.

Finance professionals “would reasonably have been able to identify Mr. Macris from the FCA’s statements.” —Appeals Judge

A tribunal judge agreed last year. The FCA appealed, arguing that it had not identified Macris, who was never explicitly named in the publications.

Want the latest institutional investment industry news and insights? Sign up for CIO newsletters. 

“The judge was in my judgment clearly right to conclude as he did,” Appeals Judge Elizabeth Gloster wrote in her May 19 decision to uphold the prior ruling. “As a matter of fact,” she continued, the FCA’s notices to JP Morgan “identified Mr. Macris… The reference to ‘CIO London management’ was in context clearly a reference to a particular individual, and not to a body of people.”

Reached by CIO for comment, an FCA spokesperson said, “We are considering the judgment carefully.”

Macris managed the now-infamous trader Javier Martin-Artajo, helping to oversee $6.2 billion in losses from JP Morgan’s synthetic credit portfolio.

The FCA had been investigating Macris “for a considerable period before the notices were issued against the firm,” according to the appeal judgment. Regulators interviewed the former CIO twice in early 2013 “relating to his management actions concerning the synthetic credit portfolio.”

Macris remains under investigation.

Paul Boomkamp, incoming CFRO, PGGMPaul Boomkamp is to become PGGM’s chief finance and risk ifficer (CFRO) in September, the Dutch pension manager has announced.

He is to replace Paul Loven, who has held the position since PGGM’s creation in 2009. Loven is leaving to build a consulting firm.

“I am very pleased [to welcome] Paul Boomkamp as a new member of the team and our organisation,” said PGGM CEO Else Bos. “He has extensive experience in different environments, both in the financial sector in health care. It fits in well with the challenges [faced by] PGGM and [the] pension sector.”

PGGM manages more than €188 billion on behalf of PFZW, the industry-wide pension fund for Dutch health care workers.

For more stories like this, sign up for the CIO Alert newsletter. 

Boomkamp began his career at petrochemical company Shell, after which he moved to consultancy McKinsey before taking senior operational roles at AXA and Aegon in the Netherlands. He is on the executive board of the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven.

Last year, PGGM announced it would reduce its workforce by 15% to try to cut costs by €50 million a year.