JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon’s Letter to Shareholders: Key Points

In his letter to shareholders, CEO Jamie Dimon said that JPMorgan Chase will do its part to ensure the global economy is safe and secure, against the backdrop of the pandemic-driven economic crisis and the Russia-Ukraine war. He also stressed the need for the U.S government to work across the private and public sectors to lead the remediations.
The chairman cautioned that though the various businesses of JPMorgan rely on and benefit from each other, helping to generate superior returns, the company is facing extraordinary competition in the market.
According to Dimon, in the last 10 years, JPMorgan paid $42 billion in federal, state and local taxes in the U.S. and $17 billion in taxes outside of the country. It also paid the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation $11 billion so that it has the resources to cover the failure of any major American bank.
Dimon said there is an ‘extraordinary’ need for strong American leadership and for regaining the country’s competence to maintain its competitiveness. That is imperative to tackle enormous global challenges like nuclear proliferation, threats to cybersecurity, terrorism, climate change, pressures on free and fair trade, and vast inequities in society.
The CEO believes that the confluence of three important and conflicting forces – the strong U.S. economy, high inflation and the Russia-Ukraine war – would likely have a major impact on the economy in the coming years and influence geopolitics in the coming decades.
Dimon believes that the aggressive quantitative easing and the government’s stimulus program helped businesses stay afloat in the pandemic-stricken market and helped improve personal finances but people’s average income, especially for lower-income households, is not keeping pace with rising inflation despite strong employment growth and increase in wages.
According to the JPM chief, while a part of the current price rise is transitory, others like wages, energy/commodity prices and housing costs are expected to remain elevated, which calls for a shift from traditional models and adoption of extreme measures. The situation requires interest rate hikes and a significant shift from quantitative easing to quantitative tightening so that the economy would stay on the growth path for many years and inflation will start receding.
Dimon said the fallout from the ongoing war and the resultant sanctions are expected to cut Russia’s economic growth by 12.5% by midyear, while the euro area would see growth slowing to about 2% as the countries are highly dependent on Russia for oil and gas. Meanwhile, the U.S economy is expected to fare better as per the latest estimates.
According to Dimon, the country’s basic principles, like the rule of law, individual liberties, freedom of speech/religion, and the concept of equal opportunity continue to be exceptional ideals that most countries wish for but often are not able to achieve. America is among the most prosperous and innovative economies, to the extent that if it opens its borders to all, billions of people, if they could, would likely want to go there.
The CEO said that flawed regulations can have a negative impact on the economy. Properly regulated human freedom and free enterprise, together with civic-minded companies/citizens and competent government, are the key to achieving stronger economic growth, not unconstrained capitalism or crony capitalism.
Dimon believes that the U.S. should be prepared to face the consequences of a possible extension of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The government should pursue both short-term and long-term strategies to bring dynamic and bipartisan solutions for the crisis and prevent such incidents from happening in the future,
Going forward, a key challenge facing the country would be unfair competition from China, which needs to be countered through thoughtful policies and effective strategies. A restructuring of global trade, with alteration of the trade partnership with China in favor of the U.S. should yield the desired results when it comes to dealing with China, said Dimon.
Banks performed extremely well during the COVID-19 pandemic by extending a huge amount of credit, waiving fees and postponing debt repayment, and they were also at the forefront of delivering Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to small businesses. Banks were also able to set aside huge reserves for possible loan losses in the future.
Banks are facing tough competition both from each other as well as from fintech and payment companies. Services like Apple Pay and Apple Card are already immensely popular and will continue to gain traction. As all these entities strive to create a space for themselves, it is likely that several mergers could take place to create more economies of scale.
The number of public companies in the US has reduced while the number of private companies has increased. Some of the reasons for this could be cumbersome reporting requirements, costly regulations, high levels of public scrutiny and the pressure of quarterly earnings faced by public entities. Private companies, on the other hand, can raise capital more easily and can focus on the business without worrying about short-term results. However, it needs to be determined whether more companies going private is a favorable trend and whether it is in the long-term interest of the country.
Through the adoption of new technologies like cloud and artificial intelligence, banks will be able to provide comprehensive products and services to their customers at no additional cost, which will prove to be an advantage.
Over the last 18 months, JP Morgan spent around $5 billion on acquisitions. This is expected to increase the company’s incremental investment expenses by around $700 million in 2022. Most of these acquisitions are expected to generate positive yields within a few years, making their costs worthwhile.
JP Morgan spent about $100 million since 2017 on AI, machine learning and other technology initiatives to improve fraud risk systems and these efforts are paying off. Its annual fraud losses have come down 14% since 2017 despite volumes being up almost 50%, and its technology investments alone are estimated to have contributed about $100 million in annual savings.
Leadership skills are most important to run any organization. Leaders should treat everyone equally.
Economy will benefit from training and getting more income to lower-paid workers.
Trust is the greatest gift of capitalism.
Conflict needs to be dealt with immediately, directly and forthrightly. Turnover happens when ineffective managers drive out good talent. There should always be continuous improvement.