JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon speaks at the American Business Forum at Caseya Center in Miami on November 6, 2025.
Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Wednesday that the bank could spend up to $20 billion on acquisitions over the next few years.
The deal is the largest in Mr. Dimon’s 20 years at the helm of JPMorgan, and will test regulators’ appetite for consolidation among America’s largest banks.
“We think there may be an opportunity and we’re keeping an eye on it,” Dimon told analysts at a financial conference in New York.
“There may be an opportunity to put in $10 in the next few years.” [billion] Or it costs $20 billion to buy something,” Dimon said.
The comment contained a warning. Mr. Dimon characterized acquisitions as almost a resort of last resort rather than a growth strategy, warning that bankers who are too transactional are often compensating for poor organic growth.
“I go to many management meetings and the first thing they do when organic growth isn’t working is they start spouting bullshit about M&A,” Dimon said. “I don’t want to ask about M&A, but…what are you doing to grow your business: sales, branches, technology, profits, products, services?”
He said any acquisition target would need to integrate cleanly into JPMorgan’s existing operations, fit with the bank’s culture and strengthen its core business, rather than exist as a standalone division.
“It shouldn’t just be a picture piece of cake,” Dimon said.
JPMorgan has grown mostly organically in recent years, with the exception of the FDIC-backed acquisition of First Republic Bank in 2023. It paid regulators $10.6 billion as part of that deal.
Under Dimon, the bank’s largest and most significant M&A deals were acquisitions of regulated banks, such as First Republic, Bear Stearns, and the retail operations of Washington Mutual, mostly during the crisis.
The company has also made a series of acquisitions of smaller fintech companies, but growth slowed after it spent $175 million in 2021 to acquire university-backed startup Frank. Frank Company was later found to be a scam.
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