JPMorgan in search of a big deal: Dimon admits to a takeover worth up to $20 billion

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is looking for the next big deal for the bank. He said this on Wednesday at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions conference, adding that the bank is only "looking at opportunities," Bloomberg reports. "I think we may have an opportunity in the next couple years to put $10 billion to $20 billion into some asset purchase," Dimon said.

A deal of this magnitude would be the largest in the 20 years that Dimon has led JPMorgan and would test the willingness of regulators to approve consolidation among key U.S. banks, CNBC notes. Dimon turned JPMorgan into the largest and most profitable financial organization in the country, Bloomberg writes. The bank bought Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual cheaply during the financial crisis, as well as First Republic Bank in 2023, and in addition absorbed a number of smaller fintech companies. However, JPMorgan slowed down after spending $175 million in 2021 to acquire Frank, a startup that helped students get financial aid for tuition that later turned out to be fraudulent, CNBC recalls.

At the Ma. 27 conference, Dimon said he sees organic growth opportunities for JPMorgan in all of its businesses and is in no rush to do deals. He said asset prices are high right now, including the bank's own shares. "We're very patient with capital. It's not burning our pockets at all. If some time the money will just lie around, it's no big deal," Bloomberg quoted the financier as saying.

Dimon's assessment is that M&A is a tool of last resort, not a growth strategy, and that bankers who rely too heavily on deals are often trying to compensate for weak organic growth, CNBC recounts.

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