JPMorgan Chase Bank has been slapped with a $250m civil money penalty by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for poor controls in its asset and wealth management operations.

According to the watchdog, the bank failed to maintain sufficient internal controls and internal audit over its fiduciary business.

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“For several years, the Bank maintained a weak management and control framework for its fiduciary activities and had an insufficient audit programme for, and inadequate internal controls over, those activities,” the OCC said in a consent order.

The regulator said that the bank’s risk management practices were inadequate and that it failed to avoid “conflicts of interest”.

“These deficiencies constituted unsafe or unsound practices and resulted in a violation of 12 CFR 9.9, which requires a suitable audit over all significant fiduciary activities,” noted the regulator.

The bank neither refuted nor agreed to the allegations.

However, the regulator said that the bank had addressed the loopholes that resulted in the fine.

The OCC did not reveal any instance of the deficiencies causing financial harm to the bank’s customers.

A bank spokesperson said: “We are committed to delivering best-in-class controls across our business, and we have invested significantly in and enhanced our controls platform over the last several years to address the issues identified.”

The penalty is the bank’s second in a period of two months. In September this year, JPMorgan was fined over $920m for manipulating precious metals, treasury market.

The bank demonstrated resilience in Q3 2020, with net income rising to $9.44bn and revenue remaining almost stable at $29.9bn.

Its asset and wealth management arm reported growth in net revenue in Q3 mainly driven by higher deposit and loan balances.

The unit’s total net revenue rose 5% year-on-year to $3.74bn while net income jumped 31% to $877m.