Employees and customers broke law on Covid-19 loan, says JPMorgan

The bank said it had discovered "conduct that does not live up to our business and ethical principles - and may even be illegal"

JPMorgan Chase is investigating whether its staff helped customers to gain funds illegally from the US government’s small business bailout programme. 

The largest US bank, which arranged $29 bn of forgivable loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by the end of June, said it had discovered “conduct that does not live up to our business and ethical principles — and may even be illegal”. “This includes instances of customers misusing Paycheck Protection Program loans, unemployment benefits and other government programmes. Some employees have fallen short, too,” the bank’s operating committee wrote in a memo to all employees. “We are doing