JPMorgan Closes 3,500 Foreign Accounts: What Is The Real Reason?

Fearful of government fines for money laundering and increased compliance burden, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) is closing the accounts of current and former foreign government officials, the Financial Times reported Tuesday.

The larger issue isn’t government tightening the screws on money laundering concerns, in the wake of HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HSBC)’s repeat offense of laundering money for drug cartels and terrorists.  According to Rafferty Capital Markets analyst Dick Bove, the government is “committed to breaking the company.”

On closing the diplomat’s bank accounts, “the linkage here is clear,” Bove writes in an update...