JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon on succession, Singapore model, AI, US economy in exclusive BT interview

[SINGAPORE] When JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon wants to get a pulse of what is going on in the world, he prefers to see things for himself and meet people in person – even if it means jetting halfway around the globe.

“I like to visit different countries, and you always get to learn a lot,” said the charismatic and outspoken head of the largest bank in the United States. “It’s an important time in the world with what’s going on now, and the best way to learn about it is to go out and talk to people.”

The 69-year-old American was recently in town, his first visit to the city-state since June 2022, when he was in town to officiate at the launch ceremony of the bank’s city office at CapitaSpring in Raffles Place.

His packed itinerary this time included meetings with the country’s political leaders, senior executives from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and sovereign wealth fund GIC, as well as some of the bank’s clients.

Speaking to The Business Times in an exclusive interview, Dimon – one of the most powerful figures on Wall Street today – said he sees Singapore as a key growth market for JPMorgan and it will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

“To give you the big picture: Just look at what Singapore has done over the last 50 years. Look at the city, look at the universities and the businesses, the GDP per capita and the amount of trade.”

One thing that struck him from his meetings during this visit was how Singapore is constantly looking to improve and stay ahead of the competition.

“(Singapore) is always thinking. Based on the time I spent with GIC and MAS and the political leaders, I see they are always thinking about what’s next and how (Singapore) can get better. It’s kind of staggering, because you don’t get that everywhere in the world,” he said.

“I think Singapore has a big chance to become a bigger financial hub. There’s an educated workforce and the country is very competitive.”

20 years at the helm

More than two decades have passed since he joined JPMorgan Chase in 2004. That was the year when JPMorgan Chase merged with Bank One, with Dimon becoming president and chief operating officer of the combined company.

In early 2006, he took the helm as CEO; a year later, he was chairman of the board. He holds down these two roles to this day.

The global financial services giant reported assets of over US$4.6 trillion and US$357 billion in stockholders’ equity as at June this year, and has more than 300,000 employees on the payroll.

During the 30-minute interview with BT at the club lounge of The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore hotel, Dimon covered a wide range of topics, including his assessment of the US economy, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), and what life could look like for him when he eventually steps down as CEO.

Asked about his outlook for Asia – he also made a short trip to Kuala Lumpur for some meetings after leaving Singapore – he spoke positively of the opportunities in this part of the world.

“I generally don’t like referring to Asia or Latin America or other continents, because you are talking about so many different countries in each one. But in general, Asia is a third of the world’s economy and it’s going to grow faster than the other two-thirds,” he said.

“Its net worth is growing faster and there’s a tremendous amount of innovation. There’s India, China and Japan – three of the largest nations in the world by GDP. And just look at Vietnam and how well they have done over the years.”

Turning to the US, which emerged from the longest government shutdown in the country’s history last month, Dimon’s take is that the world’s largest economy will continue to deal with inflation risks for some time.

“So far, the US economy looks fine. Stock prices are high and credit spreads are low. The tariffs (imposed by the Trump administration) have been much less impactful than people expected – partially because they didn’t get rolled out in the way they were announced, partially because it takes awhile, and partially because the announced numbers and the actual effective rates turned out to be completely different. And people have adjusted – which is good.

“For America, forecasting the future is very complicated and it looks to me like inflation won’t go away that quickly, and that will have ramifications. The US is in that soft landing, and everyone just hopes that will continue. I’m a little cautious about this… there are a lot of things taking place today that can affect it. The geopolitics is, maybe, the most important.”

Plenty of upside to AI

While the rise of AI has been more prominent in the last few years, Dimon pointed out that JPMorgan has been using AI since 2012. The bank runs an AI masterclass, so every one of its employees can learn to make the most of the tools and technology out there.

“Whenever we meet with a business unit, and that includes finance and human resources, we ask what they are doing with tech and AI to enhance how they serve people. AI is real, and it will be changing jobs, and it will be eliminating some jobs,” he said.

“My advice to them is: ‘Don’t put your head in the sand. Use AI like any other technology and do a better job for your clients.’ Yes, it’s already been used by the bad guys, but then, that is true for every technology in the world too.”

He called on governments and the private sector to have proper regulation of AI to manage the downside risks and come up with plans and programmes “that don’t put millions of people on the street”.

He has a message for the younger generation who might be fearful about entering a workforce where AI is so prevalent and where some jobs may cease to exist over time.

“The world is going to be a better place (with AI). There are a lot of jobs out there. What they should think about is, how do you change your career (and do the) jobs that people need today,” he said.

“A lot of jobs are not college-based jobs. And some things never change, and that’s the ability to think and reason, to educate and be educated, to stay smart and have EQ (emotional quotient) and to be able to work with people. Those things will never go away.”

“Fully deployed and occupied”

With just months until he turns 70, Dimon is asked the succession question quite often, and whether he has an idea of what he might do when he eventually steps down as CEO.

“Of course, yeah, I know exactly what I’m going to do. I’ll get an office somewhere. I’ll invest with my friends. I may teach a little bit. I’ll be fully deployed and occupied, even if I’m not CEO. I may very well be chairman for a couple of years,” he said.

“I might write a book, more like management memoirs. I also want to do a book on the global financial crisis. I don’t think it will sell a lot, but I just want to get it off my chest. We saved a lot of companies during that crisis, and people have a lot of misconceptions about what really happened. There are a lot of lessons for the future and how to avoid another crisis like that.”