JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon called the current state of banking regulations under the Biden-Harris administration an “onslaught” during an annual convention on Monday.
The 68-year-old executive who runs the largest U.S. lender, criticized what he called “overlapping” rules on capital requirements, card payments and open banking, during a conversation with BA president and CEO Rob Nichols.
“It’s time to fight back,” Dimon said at the conference. Many banks are afraid to “fight with their regulators, because they would just come and punish you more,” he added.
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Dimon’s message echoed the convention’s opening remarks by Nichols.
“I’m pleased to report that America’s banks are strong, well capitalized and resilient,” Nichols said. “Despite facing a tsunami of misguided regulatory changes that have forced our industry to push back.”
“As you know, our advocacy efforts have been laser-focused on challenging many of these new rules using facts and data to show that these changes will cause significant harm to American consumers and the broader economy,” he added.
Nichols went on to say that the ABA is involved in five active litigation matters against federal and state agencies.
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“We are suing our regulators over and over and over because things are becoming unfair and unjust, and they are hurting companies. A lot of these rules are hurting lower-paid individuals,” Dimon said.
Banks are awaiting new proposals under what is known as Basel III, a proposal by U.S. regulators in July 2023 to align their standards with those of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to help the industry better absorb economic shocks by requiring banks to maintain a higher amount of capital.
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The Federal Reserve’s regulatory chief, Michael Barr, last month outlined a plan to raise big bank capital by 9%, easing the previous proposal to hike capital 19%. It was a major concession to Wall Street banks that had lobbied to water down the draft.
“We don’t want to get involved in litigation just to make a point, but if you’re in a knife fight, you better bring a knife and that’s where we are,” Dimon said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
