JPMorgan's "whale" causes a splash JPMorgan's admission that the US bank suffered a $2bn trading loss has put the spotlight on a French-born trader nicknamed "Voldemort" and "the London whale" for outsized trading positions he amassed that appear to have gone awry. Bruno Iksil works as a credit derivative trader in the London unit of JPMorgan's 400-strong chief investment office, which the bank says hedges positions and invests "excess deposits," but is now being blamed for the recent losses. The losses have also raised questions about the position of the department's head, New York based chief investment officer Ina Drew, who earned $14m of pay in the past year according to regulatory filings. In the past five years, the unit has tripled the value of securities it held to more than $350bn at the end of last year. Mr Iksil's positions have become so big that some hedge fund managers have dubbed him "Voldemort" - the powerful villain from the Harry Potter books. But he described himself as "humble" on his personal Bloomberg profile. However, in the same profile, the former Natixis banker who joined JPMorgan seven years ago also claimed he could "walk on water" and is a champion of "kick-it." To add to the rather ambivalent picture, some colleagues have described him as a "fatherly" and modest figure who takes the train home and does not drive a flashy car. There is no indication that he or any of his colleagues have been accused of any wrongdoing. Believed to be in his late 30s, Mr Iksil works for Achilles Macris who runs the London unit of the CIO office. The Greek banker - whom rivals jokingly called JPMorgan's "Achilles heel" on Friday - is seen as the driving force behind the chief investment office's increased risk appetite in the past few years.