The buck stops with the compliance officer

New York

TO hear Jamie Dimon tell it, regulation and the cost of compliance are becoming a threat to the American dream.

"In the old days, you dealt with one regulator when you had an issue, maybe two," the JPMorgan Chase CEO said on a call with investors in January. "Now, it's five or six. It makes it very difficult and very complicated. You all should ask the question about how American that is."

Several tax brackets down from Mr Dimon, Justin "The Compliance Guru" Hall is betting that Mr Dimon's scourge will, by contrast, ensure his own upward mobility. Mr Hall, 28, is a compliance officer at Charles Schwab Corp's retail bank…