JPMorgan has quietly rebranded its DEI program — a possible bid to skirt a crackdown on woke corporate policies that the Trump administration has called discriminatory and illegal.
The Jamie Dimon-led banking giant is renaming its program DOI — or “Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion” — subbing in “Opportunity” to replace the controversial “Equity” component of DEI, according to a memo obtained by The Post.
The memo was sent to staff by Chief Operating Officer Jenn Piepszak in which she said the bank sought to comply with “current laws and regulations.”
“The “e” always meant equal opportunity to us, not equal outcomes,” she wrote. “We have always been to hiring, compensation, and promotion that are merit-based; we do not have illegal quotas or pay incentives, and we would never turn someone away because of their political or religious beliefs, or because of who they are.
JPMorgan plans to reduce training on DEI topics, and “some activities, councils or chapters may be consolidated to streamline our process and engagement strategy,” added Piepszak, who recently ruled herself out of taking over from Dimon when he steps down as CEO.
The switch follows an executive order from President Donald Trump in January that ordered the DOJ to sue companies who pursued the DEI policies brought in after the killing of George Floyd in 2020, which the White House alleges are discriminatory.
A JPMorgan spokesman declined to comment, but a senior source inside the firm said that changes had first been made to the policy following a Supreme Court ruling two years ago.
In a regulatory filing last month, America’s biggest bank said it expected to face criticism on some of its business practices, including DEI. Its latest annual filing it had only one mention of DEI, in contrast with six mentions in previous years.
Wall Street is having to grapple with Trump’s diktat to curtail DEI programs across the country, as well as pressure from conservative activist investors.
The Post exclusively reported how Goldman Sachs had decided to roll back its own DEI program last month. The financial giant also ditched a four-year-old policy of only working on IPOs for companies that had at least two diverse board members.
Last month, Citigroup, led by Scottish-born CEO Jane Fraser, said it would axe a rule that required a diverse range of candidates for job interviews.
The firm also said it was changing the name of the “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Talent Management” team to “Talent Management and Engagement.”
