JPMorgan CEO says unlikely to acquire other struggling banks

NEW YORK: JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon said that it is “unlikely” that the bank will acquire any other struggling lender, weeks after it acquired the failed First Republic Bank.

“It [First Republic] will further help advance our wealth as well as other initiatives,” Dimon said at the bank’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday, adding that they are in the process of integrating the lender.

Dimon’s latest statement comes just two weeks after JPMorgan bought a majority of First Republic Bank’s assets in a rescue effort backed by the US government.

First Republic was the third major US institution to fail in two months, and JPMorgan agreed to take $173 billion of the bank’s loans, $30 billion of securities and $92 billion of deposits.

The CEO reiterated his faith in the financial soundness of the regional banking system and said regulators could not have evaded the risks that led to the wipeout of three US banks.

“It is unlikely that any recent change in regulatory requirements would have made a difference,” he said.

In the shareholder meeting on Tuesday while all management proposals passed, all of the motions submitted by shareholders failed.