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Up to 5 prop metals traders leave JPMorgan - sources

By David SheppardNEW YORK (Reuters) - Up to five JPMorgan <JPM.N> proprietary metals traders in London left the company this week, including former Sempra trader Tim Jones, industry sources said on Thursday.

02 September 2010 21:25 GMT

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Earlier in the week, the bank told proprietary commodity traders -- who bet on commodities with the bank's own money -- that their desk would shut down to comply with new U.S. banking laws.

Tim Jones, who headed the proprietary metals trading team according to sources, was a former managing director at RBS Sempra Commodities that was bought by JPMorgan in February of this year.

Sources said the other four traders worked on Jones' trading team.

JPMorgan joins a long line of banks that are changing their trading businesses to comply with the Volcker rule, part of a broader financial reform law that limits the extent to which banks can bet with their own capital.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc , for example, is looking at turning its proprietary equity trading unit into a hedge fund.

The latest move may increase concerns within banks that they could lose traders to hedge funds and trading houses that are not bound by the new rules.

Banks have time to comply with the law, but many are eager to figure out how to deal with the business soon, before traders jump ship.

Sources did not say where Jones' trading team was headed.

A spokeswoman at JPMorgan declined to comment.

MOVING ON

The departures are the latest following the takeover by JPMorgan of RBS Sempra Commodities.

In July, JPMorgan cut between 40 and 50 commodity trading jobs to remove overlap at the firm. They were primarily from its energy trading arm with the majority of the cuts in London.

The bank's commodity team is believed to have lost well over $100 million in a disastrous coal deal during the second quarter, traders dealing with JPMorgan said in June.

The bank raised its commodity trading risk in the second quarter for the first time in nine months, but earned less from the sector as prices fell, the company's results showed earlier this year.

JPMorgan agreed to buy RBS Sempra Commodities' non-U.S. businesses in February, including global oil, metals, coal and European power and gas businesses.

The acquisition was completed at the start of July.

The $1.6 billion takeover gave JPMorgan physical access to new markets around the world, with 26 locations in more than 10 countries and more than 130 storage and warehousing facilities.

(Additional reporting by Dan Wilchins; editing by Matthew Robinson and Jim Marshall)

(c) Reuters 2012. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

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