Jamie Dimon and his big bank are channeling Martha and the Vandellas.
“They’re dancing in the streets,” Dimon said about some rivals on a Friday call with analysts about JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s second-quarter earnings.
The context was a question from Mike Mayo of Wells Fargo & Co.: If JPMorgan and other banks face tightening regulations, how would it rethink its business model? Mayo pointed out that shares of Apollo Global Management Inc. — a rival lender, but one that isn’t technically a bank — had hit an all-time high right as Michael Barr, the Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator, suggested that big banks are facing higher capital requirements.
“This is great news for hedge funds, private equity, private credit, Apollo, Blackstone,” Dimon said.
The theme is not new for the billionaire, who wrote in his most recent letter to shareholders that the “debate should not always be about more or less regulation, but about what mix of regulations will keep America’s banking system the best in the world,” including “potential requirements on shadow banks.”
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JPMorgan’s executives have their own reasons to dance: The bank’s revenue soared to a record in the second quarter, thanks to its First Republic deal and the Fed’s rate hikes.
Earlier this year, more than a dozen regulators, bankers, asset managers and former officials said “shadow debt” and its links to lenders were becoming a major cause for concern.
