“JPMorgan Chase’s potential record penalty to settle allegations it mis-sold mortgage securities is being heavily influenced by a 66-year-old cyclist named Dee, who rides downtown to work daily from her apartment on Riverside Drive in New York.

“She has a much lower public profile than Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive or Eric Holder, the US attorney-general, who met in Washington last week to work towards a landmark $11bn settlement.

“But, according to several people involved in the case, Denise Cote – “Dee” only to her friends, “Judge” to anyone in her courtroom with any sense – will have a bigger impact than either man on the size of the bank’s penalty.

“In 2011, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a government regulator, accused JPMorgan and more than a dozen other banks of selling mortgage-backed securities packed with loans made to uncreditworthy borrowers.”

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Read full Financial Times article here