DORSET’S biggest private employer JPMorgan is reeling from the news that it lost two billion dollars in trading in the last six weeks.

America’s largest bank – which employs 4,000 people at Chaseside in Littledown – saw its stock plunge almost seven per cent after the loss.

Its chief executive spoke of “errors, sloppiness and bad judgement”.

The losses came from a trading portfolio designed to hedge the bank against the risks it takes with its own money.

Chief executive Jamie Dimon said: “The portfolio has proved to be riskier, more volatile and less effective as an economic hedge than we thought.

“There were many errors, sloppiness and bad judgment.”

Partly because of the two billion trading loss, JPMorgan said it expected a loss of 800 million US dollars – or £497m – this quarter for a segment of its business known as corporate and private equity. It had planned on a profit of 200 million dollars.

Mr Dimon apologised for the losses, saying: “We will admit it, we will learn, we will fix it and move on.”

JPMorgan’s Bournemouth operation opened in 1986 with 460 employees and has around 4,000 today.