“J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. last year failed to provide regulators with detailed data on its “London whale” trades until the month before the trading losses hit $2 billion and were publicly disclosed, testimony at a Senate hearing indicated Friday.

“Douglas Braunstein, J.P. Morgan’s former chief financial officer, acknowledged that through much of early 2012 the bank didn’t give its front-line regulator regular reports about profits and losses on the positions. The company has said losses ultimately exceeded $6 billion.

“Mr. Braunstein’s admission was the first time a bank official conceded a lack of transparency and appeared to contradict comments he made on an April 13, 2012, conference call, in which he told investors the bank was providing the data to regulators. That is the same call in which J.P. Morgan Chief Executive James Dimonfamously called questions about the trade “a tempest in a teapot.”

“Mr. Braunstein’s remark came as a handful of current and former J.P. Morgan officials—including Ina Drew, the former executive in charge of the unit that made the trades—sparred with Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) at an all-day hearing by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.”

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