Dimon Leaves New York Fed Board as His Term Ends

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, has left the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a position that had stirred some controversy after the bank’s big trading loss last year.

Mr. Dimon’s three-year term, his second on the board, expired at the end of December. While there are no official term limits, it is common for New York Fed directors to serve no more than two terms.

So far, Mr. Dimon has not been replaced. He was designated a Class A director, elected by and representing banks. Joseph Evangelisti, a spokesman for JPMorgan, declined to comment.

Mr. Dimon’s role on the board came under scrutiny last May, when JPMorgan announced a multibillion-dollar trading loss at the bank’s chief investment office in London. The incident raised questions about how the risky position could have gone undetected by regulators, which include the Federal Reserve.

At the time of the news, some called for Mr. Dimon to resign from the board, including Elizabeth Warren, who was at the time running for a Senate seat.

Another critic, Simon Johnson, a professor at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management, drafted a petition in May that called for Mr. Dimon to resign.

“There is an undeniable perception problem,” Mr. Johnson wrote on the Economix blog of The New York Times. “It is damaging the legitimacy of the Federal Reserve.”

But others came to Mr. Dimon’s defense. Ernie Patrikis, a partner at White & Case and a former general counsel at the New York Fed, pointed out that the role of board members like Mr. Dimon was simply to provide the central bank with insight into the financial system.

“The information he provides is more than what he gets. It’s a one-sided relationship,” Mr. Patrikis said. “In my 30 years at the Fed, I never heard anyone say we should give a break to big bank or a small bank because the individual was a director.”

In addition to Class A directors, the board of the New York Fed includes Class B directors, who are elected by banks to represent the public, and Class C directors, who are appointed by the Federal Reserve Board and represent the public.

Mr. Dimon, who was one of three Class A directors, represented the biggest banks, with capital and surplus of more than $1 billion. His successor would also represent large banks.