Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO since 2006
Photo Illustration by Hayley Warnham; Reference: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
In July, after some ribbon-cutting in the Dakotas, Chase Bank will have branches in all 48 of the lower states—an industry first. But Jamie Dimon, chief executive of parent JPMorgan Chase, isn’t coasting. “There’s not one single area where we can’t grow,” he tells Barron’s.
Dimon’s focus on diversification has served JPMorgan well during the pandemic. Booms in volatility-fueled trading and merger work have offset softness in retail banking. Bank customers are feeling flush from stimulus money, which has cut into loan demand for now, but has also kept loan losses low, allowing the company to release billions of dollars in reserves as earnings. “The table is set for a very strong recovery,” says Dimon.
JPMorgan has been spending $12 billion a year on technology. The goal is to “put everything into modern architectures where it’s more usable for artificial intelligence and digital services,” says Dimon, 65. He calls the regulations facing banks, which are stricter than for fintech start-ups, a “burden to bear,” but says that JPMorgan has advantages over insurgents: huge scale, brand, and trust. Since he became chief, the stock has returned about 500%, more than 100 points above the S&P 500 index.
Write to Jack Hough at [email protected]
