JPMorgan quietly rebranded its DEI program. This is a bid to reduce crackdowns on awakened corporate policies that the Trump administration calls discriminatory and illegal.
The Jamie Dimon-led banking giant is renaming the program DOI, or “diversity, opportunity, and inclusion,” which follows “opportunities” that replaces the “equity” component of the DEI controversy, according to a memo obtained by the Post.
The memo was sent to staff by Chief Operating Officer Jen Piepsak, where she said the bank tried to comply with “current laws and regulations.”
“'e' always meant equal opportunity, not equal outcome,” she writes. “We have always been in merit-based employment, compensation and promotions, we don't pay illegal allocations or incentives, and we don't distract anyone because of political or religious beliefs or who they are.
JPMorgan plans to cut training on DEI topics, and “some activities, councils, or chapters may be integrated to streamline processes and engagement strategies,” Piepszak added.
The switch followed an executive order from President Donald Trump in January, which ordered the DOJ to sue companies that pursued the DEI policies that came after George Floyd's murder in 2020.
A JP Morgan spokesman declined to comment, but a senior source within the company said the policy was first changed following the Supreme Court's ruling two years ago.
In a regulatory filing last month, the largest US bank said it is expected to face criticism of some of its business practices, including DEI. The most recent annual submission had only one mention of DEI, in contrast to six references from previous years.
Not only does Wall Street have to work with Trump's dictatt to cut DEI programs across the country, but it is also under pressure from conservative activist investors.
This post only reported how Goldman Sachs decided to roll back its own DEI program last month. The financial giant also abandoned its four-year-old policy of working only on IPOs for companies with at least two diverse board members.
Last month, Citigroup, led by Scottish-born CEO Jane Fraser, said it would read the rules that require a diverse range of candidates for job interviews.
The company also said it has changed its name to “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Human Resource Management” team to “Human Resource Management and Engagement.”
