JPMorgan CEO Dimon sees US economic boom through 2023

NEW YORK - JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said on Wednesday the United States could be in store for an economic boom through 2023 if more adults get vaccinated and federal spending continues.

"I have little doubt that with excess savings, new stimulus savings, huge deficit spending, more QE (quantitative easing), a new potential infrastructure bill, a successful vaccine and euphoria around the end of the pandemic, the U.S. economy will likely boom," Dimon wrote in his annual letter to shareholders published on the bank's website.

"This boom could easily run into 2023 because all the spending could extend well into 2023."

As head of the biggest US bank, Dimon is widely seen as the face of America's banking sector, and he used the letter to share his views on the country's economic health and to press for policies to help address inequality and improve the criminal justice system.

The average US consumer's finances are in "excellent shape," Dimon said, and the stock market's high valuations are justified. The price of US treasuries, however, are not, he wrote.

The economic growth Dimon projects the United States could see in the next two years will create opportunities to "deal with issues stemming from inequality," Dimon wrote.

He called for raising the federal minimum wage, improving training for jobs at high schools and colleges and making it easier for people with criminal records to get jobs.

Dimon, who has called for higher taxes to pay for federal stimulus, said corporations could support many of these initiatives if the government adopted rigorous budgeting, transparency and discipline when it comes to its spending.

"We must remember that the concepts of free enterprise, rugged individualism and entrepreneurship are not incompatible with meaningful safety nets and the desire to lift up our disadvantaged citizens," Dimon wrote. (Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts Marshall; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

-reuters-

JPMorgan Chase asks some managers to return to the office

NEW YORK - JPMorgan Chase, the largest US bank, has asked the heads of its sales and trading units to return to the office by September 21, a person familiar with the plans said Thursday.

The announcement was made during a telephone conference call with the team leaders of those units, many of whom have already returned to the bank's downtown offices, the source told AFP.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has spent most of the summer in the New York City office.

The bank's request however is addressed to the heads of these divisions, not to all employees.

JPMorgan plans to be flexible with people who have to manage childcare problems, as many area schools have moved partially or entirely to online courses.

They also will be flexible with employees who are at high risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus, or live with someone at high risk.

JPMorgan plans to monitor the pandemic in each city and location where it operates and adjust to changing circumstances.

The bank believes that having these employees in the office strengthens culture, creates a more cohesive work environment and is important for training newcomers.

Contacted by AFP, JPMorgan Chase declined to comment on the changes, first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The activities of JPMorgan, as well as all of Wall Street's major financial institutions, were seriously disrupted earlier in the year when the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread, especially affecting New York City.

Many employees opted for teleworking while others have been relocated to emergency sites.

This did not prevent the Wall Street giant from posting record profits in the second quarter of 2020 thanks especially to brokerage and investment banking activities.

Agence France-Presse

JPMorgan CEO Dimon calls 'bad recession', mulls suspending 2020 dividend

JPMorgan Chase & Co's top boss Jamie Dimon on Monday said he sees a "bad recession" in 2020, and that the largest US bank could suspend its dividend if the coronavirus crisis deepens.

Dimon, widely regarded as the face of the US banking sector, is the most prominent voice on Wall Street so far to project that the economic cost of the coronavirus will not evaporate quickly, and said the bank's earnings will be down "meaningfully in 2020."

JPMorgan could look at suspending dividends if the gross domestic product (GDP) were to fall by as much as 35 percent in the second quarter and the unemployment rate were to rise further to 14% in the fourth quarter of the year, the chief executive officer wrote in his annual letter to shareholders.

Questions are mounting about whether big US banks will have to cut dividends later this year as the coronavirus crisis puts a record portion of Americans out of work, making it difficult for borrowers to pay back loans.

"If the board suspended the dividend, it would be out of extreme prudence and based upon continued uncertainty over what the next few years will bring," Dimon said.

Dimon, who returned to work last week after undergoing emergency heart surgery in March, highlighted several other challenges that the bank is facing, saying its call centers have struggled in the current environment, with many of them effectively shutting down due to local restrictions.

JPMorgan will extend benefits to customers hit hard by the health crisis, by introducing measures such as waivers for late fees and a 90-day grace period for mortgage and auto loan payments, according to the letter.

Dimon also said that the vast majority of the bank's 16,850 ATMs were "well-stocked and still functioning" to provide cash for customers.

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The bank said it had extended about $950 million in new loans to small businesses and would still extend credit to small businesses.

"In both our central case scenario for 2020 results and in our extremely adverse scenario, we are lending – currently or plan to do so – an additional $150 billion for our clients' needs," Dimon said.

Even with that lending, Dimon wrote JPMorgan currently has over $500 billion in total liquid assets and $300 billion in incremental borrowing capacity from the Federal Reserve and Federal Home Loan Banks.

Dimon did not pass up the opportunity to suggest regulatory and fiscal policy reform, as he has often done in past annual letters.

"After the crisis subsides (and it will), our country should thoroughly review all aspects of our preparedness and response. And we should use the opportunity to closely review the economic response and determine whether any additional regulatory changes are warranted to improve our financial and economic system. There will be a time and place for that – but not now."

JPMorgan will also nominate former International Business Machines Corp Chief Executive Officer Virginia "Ginni" Rometty for election to its board. Rometty will become the executive chairman of IBM on April 6. (Reporting by Anirban Sen in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Bernard Orr)

-Reuters-

JPMorgan Chase chief: banks healthy 10 years after meltdown

WASHINGTON -- JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Sunday the US banking system had returned to full health 10 years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers plunged the world into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Dimon, who traded barbs earlier in the week with Donald Trump, gave the US president "pretty good" marks for his handling of the US economy, noting that business and consumer confidence "skyrocketed" after his election.

"The banking system is very, very, very healthy. And regulators should actually take a little bit of a victory lap because Lehman would not happen today," he said on ABC's "This Week."

"There will be a recession one day, but it won't be the banking system. It'll probably be something else," he said.

Lehman Brothers, a venerable Wall Street investment bank, filed for bankruptcy September 15, 2008 amid a subprime mortgage crisis, setting off a broader market crash that imperiled the global financial system.

Dimon defended the federal bailouts of the big US banks at the height of the crisis.

But he said he understood why many believe it was unfair that the banks were protected while other Americans were left to suffer the consequences.

"And there's some truth to that. And they didn't see Old Testament justice. So I understand why there is a lot of anger out there," he said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump: Big decisions on his administration coming 'soon'

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Friday he would use the Veterans Day holiday to focus on the imposing task of forming a new administration, saying he will soon be making "very important" decisions about who will help him govern.

"Busy day planned in New York," the Republican billionaire posted on Twitter regarding his transition process, which has been cranking up to full speed since he won the presidency in a shock upset over Democrat Hillary Clinton on Tuesday.

"Will soon be making some very important decisions on the people who will be running our government!"

Trump has about 70 days to put together a 15-member cabinet, and the names of several of his close advisors have been mentioned as options to fill key posts.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is heading the transition team, and he is believed to be in the running for attorney general, along with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

On Thursday, the Trump campaign floated the idea of JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon as Treasury secretary, while former House speaker Newt Gingrich was being discussed as Trump's potential White House chief of staff.

Trump assumes the presidency on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017, and President Barack Obama has stressed that one of his main priorities is to assure a peaceful and smooth transition of power.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

US won't prosecute ex-JPMorgan trader Iksil: source

NEW YORK CITY - The ex-JPMorgan Chase trader nicknamed "the London Whale" for his huge derivatives losses has reached a deal to avoid US prosecution, a source familiar with the situation said Tuesday.

Bruno Iksil, who along with others has been blamed for big bets that resulted in a $6.2 billion loss for the bank in 2012, reached the deal after agreeing to testify in the case, according to the source.

But criminal indictments against two other ex-JPMorgan traders could come later this week in the case, with regulators focused on whether some in the bank sought to cover up the extent of the losses.

Iksil, a French citizen, cooperated with prosectors who determined after reviewing email correspondence and other evidence not to prosecute him, the source told AFP.

Iksil also is not expected to be named in civil charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the source said.

JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon and other company brass have apologized for the London whale debacle, depicting it as a major blunder that resulted from poor strategy and execution.

But US prosecutors have been probing whether some London officials within JPMorgan understated the losses as they were mounting, misleading senior company officials in New York.

Two other former JPMorgan employees, Julien Grout, who worked under Iksil reporting on the trades, and Javier Martin-Artajo, who was the head of the trading team, have been named in recent days in the US press as facing likely criminal indictment as soon as this week.

All three men worked together at JPMorgan in London.

Indictments against Grout and Martin-Artajo could come as soon as Wednesday, with the timing partly depending on whether they are now in countries where extradition is possible, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Grout, also a French citizen now residing in his home country, has not received a warrant for his arrest, his attorney Edward Little told AFP.

Grout has "no need to collaborate" with US authorities on the probe, Little said. "He's done nothing wrong."

Martin-Artajo, a native of Spain residing in London, is now on a "long planned vacation," his law firm Norton Rose Fulbright said on his behalf.

Martin-Artajo has cooperated with UK regulatory inquiries and has received no communication from "any government regulators" that indicate "he should not be on vacation at this time," said a statement released by the firm.

"Mr. Martin-Artajo is confident that when a complete and fair reconstruction of these complex events is completed, he will be cleared of any wrongdoing," the statement said.

JPMorgan fired Iksil and Martin-Artajo in the aftermath of the whale, while Ina Drew, who led the chief investment office where the ill-conceived trades were launched, also stepped down.

JPMorgan slashed Dimon's 2012 compensation package by 50 percent and overhauled its risk management practices. Still, Dimon had to beat back a shareholder challenge this spring that sought to strip him of his chairmanship at the bank, the nation's largest by revenue.

The SEC has launched a civil probe of the bank's actions, including its disclosures to investors and the bank's internal controls.

The two sides are in talks for a possible settlement this fall, according to reports. The agency is pressing for an admission of wrongdoing in the case, part of new SEC Chairman Mary Jo White's efforts to toughen oversight of misconduct, the reports said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

JPMorgan chief admits bank's 'credibility' at stake

WASHINGTON -- JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon admitted on Sunday that a $2 billion loss on derivatives trades had jeopardized the bank's credibility and given regulators a fresh opportunity to target Wall Street.

Dimon told NBC's "Meet the Press" program that the big loss incurred by the New York-based bank, which triggered a slide in banking shares on Friday, was damaging, but not bad enough to stop the company making a profit.

The Wall Street boss has led US banks in fighting the application of the new Volcker Rule, named after former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, which would ban so-called proprietary trading, when banks trade on their own accounts. Banks are also resisting proposed curbs on their hedging activities.

Asked if JPMorgan's losses had given regulators new ammunition to clamp down on Wall Street after the US government bail out of several financial institutions during the 2008 crisis, Dimon replied: "Yes, absolutely. This is a very unfortunate and inopportune time to have had this kind of mistake."

He denied that the unexpected losses from a hedging scheme -- designed to lower investment risk, but which spectacularly backfired -- had placed the company in jeopardy, though unwanted ramifications could follow.

"It's a question of size. This is not a risk that is life-threatening to JPMorgan," said Dimon, who late Thursday told analysts that the loss could increase to $3 billion through the end of June due to market volatility.

"This is a stupid thing that we should never have done, but we're still going to earn a lot of money this quarter. So, it isn't like the company is jeopardized.

"We hurt ourselves and our credibility yes, and we've got to fully expect and pay the price for that."

The interview with Dimon was conducted Friday after JPMorgan shares closed down 9.3 percent, wiping $14 billion off the market value of the bank.

The shock loss came over the past six weeks in the New York bank's risk management unit, the Chief Investment Office, and involved trading in credit default swaps, a so-called "synthetic hedge."

The losses were a humiliation for Dimon -- one of Wall Street's best known titans -- and for the bank, after it proudly came through the financial crisis in far better shape than many of its rivals.

Politicians who have called for the tightening of bank regulation and tougher controls on proprietary trading -- when banks' trade on their own accounts -- have seized on JPMorgan's losses.

On Sunday, Barney Frank, a Republican congressman and former chair of the House Financial Services Committee who drew up the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill after the 2008 crisis, said banks were not being unfairly targeted.

He said "we have stopped... them from losing money in ways that would cause damage to the rest of the system," while accusing Republicans of trying to reduce funding for the government agency that monitors derivatives trading.

Dodd-Frank was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010 with the intention of preventing high risk activities on Wall Street, which four years ago culminated in a global recession, from impacting the wider economy again.

Although the reforms imposed new regulations for banks, hedge funds and private equity activities, some lawmakers have said the rules do not go far enough.

Frank said the Volcker rule on proprietary trades, which Wall Street leaders and some lawmakers have argued would amount to an unnecessary block on its freedom to conduct business, "is still being formulated."

"It's a complicated thing," Frank added.

article source: interaksyon.com