“Italy is recovering, Europe is recovering. This is why JP Morgan has never left Italy, even during the most critical phases of its economy. But Italy and Europe must compete with adequate economic and fiscal policy choices and clear banking regulation: all of this contributes to improving growth. I am in favor of strong banking regulation but I understand the difficulty of European banks: they would like to lend more but are under pressure to reduce leverage and risk exposure. European governments should adopt balanced policies to encourage banks to finance the economy and lend money, especially to SMEs”.
Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, speaks to Il Sole 24 Ore at the start of the Italian semester of presidency of the EU. The CEO should have been visiting several European countries these days, including Italy. The trip was canceled just yesterday, after he was diagnosed with a curable form of cancer, which he communicated to the employees of the group (about 250) on Tuesday evening with a message to say that "although the therapy will reduce my travel in this period, I will be able to continue to monitor the bank's business closely and actively, and the bank will continue as normal. We have outstanding leaders across our organization, across functions and lines of business, and so we will move forward together by continuing to deliver “first class results for our customers, shareholders and the communities in which we operate”.
