Even Jamie Dimon Should Answer to Someone
JPMorgan’s failure to disclose a six-year ban on expanding branches shows shareholders need more representation.
With great power comes greater responsibility.
Photographer: Tim Boyle/Bloomberg
Even Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and arguably the best banking chief of his generation, shouldn’t be all-powerful.
New evidence of that came last week. On Friday, Bloomberg News reported that for almost six years starting in 2012, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a U.S. bank regulator, halted JPMorgan from significantly expanding its bank branches. Putting aside the issue of whether regulators should be encouraging what is already the largest U.S. bank to get even bigger, the branch expansion ban, which had not been reported before, is no longer an issue for JPMorgan. It was removed earlier this year — one of the many moves by regulators appointed by Donald Trump to ease rules on banks — and JPMorgan is now planning to aggressively open retail branches.