China has been “very consistent” in opening up to financial-services companies, but calculating the potential upside for US firms has become more complicated, according to Jamie Dimon.
Investors considering making a move into the world’s second-largest economy have to be “a little worried” because “the risk-reward has changed dramatically,” the longtime JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive officer said Wednesday in a CNBC interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Still, “they’re trying to make sure that they’re open for business, that they’re being fair to foreign companies,” Dimon said, adding that he met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the conference, and “it’s good they’re here.”
Dimon, the longest-serving major US bank CEO, has for years been flagging geopolitical tensions as a major headwind for the global economy. The JPMorgan CEO also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Davos, alongside fellow finance titans including Blackstone Inc.’s Steve Schwarzman and Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio.
“People forget that every day he wakes up in the morning there’s a 600-mile front, there’s a million soldiers fighting,” Dimon said of Zelenskiy. “We have to help them, we have to teach the American public that this is about freedom and democracy for the free world.”
In the wide-ranging interview, Dimon also addressed the US economy. JPMorgan notched the highest annual profit in the history of American banking in 2023, but executives have taken to warning that the firm is “over-earning.” In recent months, Dimon has repeatedly said that inflation might not go away as quickly as the market expects, and that the Federal Reserve may have to further hike its benchmark rate.
“It’s a mistake to assume that everything’s hunky dory,” Dimon said. “When stock markets are up, it’s kind of like this little drug we all feel, like it’s just great. But remember, we’ve had so much fiscal and monetary stimulation, so I’m a little more on the cautious side.”