JPMorgan CEO makes TARP wisecracks

Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co., has been sitting on a letter that he wrote to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner seven months ago after his bank accepted $25 billion in federal bailout funds. The banker, who spoke at a hospitality conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel today, said the letter was some version of the following: “Dear Timmy, we are happy to repay the money, and we hope you enjoyed the experience as much as we did. And when you receive the funds back, we want to send audit teams to look at your use of airplanes and hotels” to ensure that the money is being used wisely. Mr. Dimon spared no sarcasm today as the keynote speaker at the New York University International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference, expressing his frustration at how bankers have been vilified since the financial meltdown began last year. He revealed that when the TARP funds arrived, it was in the old fashioned way. He sent his secretary to a retail bank branch to pick up the $25 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program check. While he still believes it was the right decision for his bank and that the TARP program “saved the country an enormous amount of pain and suffering,” Mr. Dimon believes that banks are unfairly maligned as the culprits for the economy’s problems. The real fault, he maintains, lies with businesses and financial instruments that were unregulated. He pointed his finger instead at mortgage companies and financial products offered by troubled insurer American International Group Inc. “I am a little concerned about the continued populism and blame game, mostly coming out of Washington, D.C.,” he said. This environment helped to fuel support for the recently passed credit-card legislation “that was rammed through Congress,” he said. “We had nothing to say about it. We are the devil incarnate and were not asked about it.” The result of the legislation is that card companies will simply give out less credit, he said. Mr. Dimon also said that contrary to what most people think, banks are lending right now. He pointed to the $50 billion a month that his firm lends. “Banks are doing more, not less, but I expect it to come down because demand is down.”