About a year ago, JPMorgan Chase was on the receiving end of some major skepticism centered around the bank's technology budget for 2023 ($15 billion) and the bank's expansion plans (like its fledgling UK retail banking operation).
First Republic acquisition: Fast forward to today and the US's largest bank is fresh off acquiring First Republic.
Investors are more trusting of Dimon: More, the din to reduce spending has quieted. For his part, Dimon's pay package was approved at previous levels. The First Republic acquisition may bolster the firm's asset management business, even turning some of First Republic's branches into 'special branches' for the firm's best clients.
Dimon has said that JPMC is likely done acquiring banks in the near future.
He's got his mojo on
The current economic and banking mess has seen Dimon's presence crescendoing. It's not just that he seems to perform his best under stress, it's like Dimon was born to lead during times like this.
There are still some challenges
Now as he prepares to address shareholders at this year’s investor day, JPMorgan Chase's CEO will try to convince shareholders that JPMC still has some legs to growth.
“There’s no reason for us to think the company can’t continue to grow and leverage economies of scale, and just continue to serve their existing customers with more products and acquire new customers,” told Jason Goldberg, banking analyst at Barclays to the Financial Times.
The firm needs to contend with an overhang resulting from its banking of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
JPMC also has an opportunity to prove itself in acquiring fintech firms after the fiasco that was the Frank acquisition. Albeit a tiny acquisition for the firm, it revealed a sloppy due diligence process that missed some seemingly obvious red flags.
Investor Day 2023
At its investor day today, JPMC's CEO will be joined by leaders of the bank’s four business divisions: corporate and investment banking, consumer and community banking, commercial banking, and asset and wealth management.
For his part and influence, Dimon has become a sort of oracle for financial services and the economy in general. Investors will still be interested in seeing how the bank plans to spend its billions on technology and expansion but expect them to cut Dimon some more slack.