Wall Street’s banking icon | World Finance

After 16 years at the helm of the United States’ biggest bank, trillion-dollar giant JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon is not afraid to speak his mind. Everything from bitcoin (“I personally think that bitcoin is worthless,” he said in 2021) to the Chinese government (“The Communist Party is celebrating its 100th year. So is JPMorgan. And I’ll make you a bet we last longer,” he said at an event in Hong Kong) is fair game in his mind. His forthright comments have occasionally landed him in hot water – he had to apologise for his comment about China, for instance – but Dimon’s penchant for plain speaking has earned him more fans than enemies. Indeed, he was described in the New York Times Magazine in 2010 as “America’s least-hated banker.” Today, the view still holds true.

“With apologies to Brian Moynihan [the CEO of Bank of America] and Charlie Scharf [the CEO of Wells Fargo], among others, Jamie Dimon may be the most respected US bank CEO, known for his candour, charisma and self-confidence,” James Shanahan, senior equity research analyst at Edward Jones told World Finance. Having now earned the title of the longest-serving CEO on Wall Street, World Finance looks back on the iconic banker’s career.

A budding banker
Born in Queens in New York City in 1956, Dimon was the grandson of a Greek immigrant who worked as a stockbroker in the city. His father followed in his grandfather’s footsteps, also becoming a stockbroker, and Dimon’s own…