JPM's Dimon Calls For Crypto Regulation

JPMorgan Chase’s top executive has some thoughts for regulators.

JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon told the Investment Company Institute today there should be a legal and regulatory framework around crypto.

Speaking remotely to the audience of ICI’s annual meeting, he said the reasons there isn’t such a structure are regulators are fighting the last war, and they want to show they are supporting new technology.

Dimon cautioned that complaints by retail investors about bad experiences with the digital assets could force their hands.

“When grandmothers start buying it, you are going to have an uproar about what happened,” he said.

Dimon also cautioned against Biden Administration financial regulators achieving their stated goals of imposing more climate change regulation.

Dilution Issue

If they impose rule after rule, the efforts are not going to do anything—and at a huge cost, he predicted.

Dimon said instead that a carbon tax and industrial policy were the best ways of moving toward lower carbon intensity.

Commenting on the decline in the number of public companies from 8,000 to around 4,000, he listed two contributing factors: the distaste of entrepreneurs and early investors for litigation against public firms, and special interest groups hijacking shareholder meetings.

Dimon praised the Dodd-Frank Act for accomplishing its aims: more liquidity, more capital.

The American International Group meltdown wouldn’t have happened if the law was in effect before the financial crisis, the J.P. Morgan leader said.

Contact Ted Knutson at [email protected]