Federal authorities led by the SEC's ant-bribery unit had begun an investigation into the bank’s hiring of the sons and daughters of China's elite.

It emerged that the bank had hired the daughter of a Chinese railway official and the son of Tang Shuangning, a former Chinese banking regulator who is now the chairman of the state-controlled financial conglomerate China Everbright Group, according to a confidential government document reviewed by NYT.

The bank had even created a formal "Sons and Daughters" programme in 2006 after friends and family of China's elite jostled for positions at JPMorgan, the NYT report said.

"And what began as an effort to ferret out nepotism and avoid bribery accusations in the United States became a two-tiered process. Those well-heeled applicants appeared to enjoy less stringent standards and fewer interviews," it said, adding that in some cases, JPMorgan won business from companies with ties to the children.

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