April 16 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, who today reported first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ expectations, said his firm could repay U.S. government rescue funds “tomorrow.”

Dimon, calling money received through the Troubled Asset Relief Program “a scarlet letter” and “the TARP baby,” said on a conference call with reporters today that the New York- based bank is awaiting guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department. “We could pay it back tomorrow,” he said.

The 53-year-old CEO received $25 billion in U.S. government rescue funds last year. Dimon is among banking industry CEOs who have said pay limits imposed by lawmakers are pushing many employees to foreign or non-TARP firms.

Dimon said he was counting on the government being “equal” in allowing banks deemed healthy to repay the TARP money. “I don’t think any competitor should be allowed to pay it back faster than we do,” he said.

Dimon has fared better than most rivals in guiding the company through the financial crisis, taking $33.3 billion in writedowns, losses and credit provisions through the fourth quarter. That compares with $88.3 billion at New York-based Citigroup Inc. and $55.9 billion at Merrill Lynch & Co., now part of Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. bank.

‘Learned Our Lesson’

The bank, which bought about $34 billion in mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities in the quarter, doesn’t expect to participate as either a buyer or seller in the Treasury’s Public-Private Investment Program, known as PPIP. “We learned our lesson” about borrowing from the government, said Dimon, who expects PPIP to benefit the financial system as a whole.

The Treasury plans to start PPIP “as soon as possible,” spokesman Andrew Williams said in a statement today. “We’ve been encouraged by the interest from both investors and financial institutions who wish to participate in creating a market for these legacy assets,” he said.

Dimon has said previously that he’s eager to repay the government funds “as soon as is prudent.” Such a move would free the bank from compensation restrictions and other oversight that was tied to the bailout money. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised $5 billion this week in a share sale in order to help pay back the $10 billion it took from the government.

No Money Needed

“I don’t see why a company with that kind of capital would have to raise capital,” Dimon said on a call with analysts. “What Goldman did is what Goldman did. It has nothing to do with us.”

Dimon told reporters that the firm doesn’t need to raise capital to repay the funds, although he believes he could tap the public markets for money. “It may not be entirely up to us,” he said. “I don’t think we need it.”

Some analysts remain skeptical that banks will repay the funds any time soon. “It may be a back-half of 2009 event or probably into 2010, only because it sends the message of, ‘why is this bank OK, why can’t the other banks return the funds?’” William Fitzpatrick, an equity analyst at Optique Capital Management in Racine, Wisconsin, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. The firm holds about 400,000 shares of JPMorgan.

JPMorgan’s Tier 1 capital ratio, which measures assets on a risk-adjusted basis, would be 9.2 percent excluding the TARP money, JPMorgan said in reporting earnings today. It’s now 11.3 percent including the government funds.

Shares of JPMorgan rose 1 percent to $32.93 as of 12:13 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock was up 3 percent in the year through yesterday.

Dimon said the firm is awaiting the results of the government’s stress tests on the nation’s top 19 banks and hopes that it will be announced in a way that provides “clarity” to the market. The Federal Reserve and other regulators aim to release the results on May 4, a central bank official said today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Hester in New York at ehester@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 16, 2009 12:34 EDT