JPMorgan Chase expands mandatory diversity training

March 31 (UPI) -- JPMorgan Chase on Tuesday told employees it was instituting mandatory diversity and inclusion training after a December report detailing racial discrimination at a branch of the bank in Arizona.

The bank's acting co-chief executive officers, Gordon Smith and Daniel Pinto, announced the expanded training, saying the company would expand the recruiting team dedicated to hiring people of color, increase efforts to hire vendors run by minorities and make efforts to provide customers access to its entire range of products.

"We've identified a number of areas that, with enhanced, scaled or new programming or processes, would serve to improve our culture in important ways," the memo stated.

The expansions to training include courses for all of the bank's 257,000 employees and special training for managers.

"Because the role of the manager is arguably the most critical role in promoting our culture deep into the organization, we will make additional manager training mandatory at the time of promotion to a people-manager role and at the time of promotion to a senior leader role, in addition to other developmental moments for managers," the bank said.

The measure follows a report by The New York Times in which a financial adviser recorded his boss making disparaging comments about a black customer, saying she didn't deserve to be part of the bank's program for elite customers. It also detailed former NFL player Jimmy Kennedy's struggle to gain access to a package of perks for wealthy clients, which an employee told him was related to his race.