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Jamie Dimon's Back On A Cost-Cutting Drive

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Here's the latest investment banking cost-cutting memo over at the House of Dimon, brought to you courtesy of Dealbreaker.

From: IB Broadcast On Behalf Of Investment Bank Management Committee

Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 10:15 AM

Subject: New global T&E policy for the Investment Bank

Message from Investment Bank Management Committee

'J.P. Morgan is in an important position of relative strength, and it is essential that we stay in front of our clients and the markets to maintain the leadership positions we've worked hard to build. At the same time, we need to keep the cost of doing business in mind, particularly in the current environment. Across the Investment Bank, we are making good progress in our efforts to manage non-compensation related expenses. As we recently reported, first quarter expenses, excluding IC, were down 7% quarter-on-quarter.

Having said that, we think we can do even more to reduce costs related to Travel and Entertainment without affecting our ability to stay connected with clients and maintain appropriate internal business practices. T&E represents a meaningful portion of the IB's overall expense base, and are also expenses that every employee can help us to better control. Our ability to manage T&E more effectively means we can cut less through other types of productivity initiatives.

As such, we are introducing a new, global T&E policy for the Investment Bank that is effective immediately. The new policy, which you can access through this link, addresses T&E expenses related to travel, meals, hotels and entertainment, charitable contributions, recruiting and gifts, as well as the use of consultants and temporary staff. It is designed to drive more consistency across regions and lines of business, remove any ambiguity that may have existed in our old policies, provide clearer approval processes, and better reflect the environment in which we are operating.

We have retained a number of the benefits that employees receive from the firm today, including the ability to keep frequent traveler rewards, reimbursement for the use of CLEAR in the U.S., maintaining a quality hotel program that meets the firm's safety and security standards, and 24 x 7 customer service support for travelers.

We encourage you to review this new global policy carefully and to raise any questions with your CFO or business manager.

Maintaining our focus managing all aspects of the business end-to-end will have a direct impact on our bottom line and will serve us well during this - and other - business cycles.

Thanks, in advance, for your support'.

According to Dealbreaker, the cuts include:

Car service only after 10PM (previously 9PM).

Corporate Messenger may be used only to deliver final versions of presentations which are for next day meetings. If Corporate Messenger cannot deliver within 2 hours, documents may be sent via taxi. Documents should not be sent via black car unless at personal expense.

Any JPMC owned technology which is lost or damaged must be replaced at the employee's expense. This policy covers laptops, blackberry units, financial calculators, etc.

Seamless web orders shall not exceed $20 (down from $25).

Tips for meals or taxis should be "up to 15% and no higher.

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