Could a banking mogul admired by many be America’s next Treasury secretary? Apparently this is a possibility, as Reuters — citing “a person familiar with the matter” — is reporting that JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon is being courted for the position. According to the news agency, a senior official on President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team contacted Dimon to gauge his interest in the job. It is not known how Dimon responded.
JPMorgan Chase has not yet commented on the report.
If Dimon were to be offered the position, it would represent an about-face for Trump. The president-elect has criticized big banking in general and Dimon specifically, at one point calling him “the worst banker in the United States.”
Trump’s earlier comments aside, Dimon is considered to be one of the more astute leaders in the financial sector. Under his leadership, JPMorgan Chase has risen to become the largest U.S. bank in terms of market capitalization, and total assets. On both metrics, it is now nearly twice as large as the financial giant that Dimon was instrumental in shaping into its present form, Citigroup.
Although Dimon has said numerous times that he is not interested in becoming Treasury secretary, he has hinted at political ambitions. In September, speaking to the Economic Club of Washington he said that he “would love to be President of the United States of America.”
There is plenty of precedent for a financial sector titan taking the reins of the Treasury Department. In recent times, former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin and Hank Paulson served as Treasury Secretaries in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, respectively. Rubin later served as senior advisor and sat on the board of directors of Citigroup. Current Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, also spent time in big banking — he held executive positions at Citigroup before joining the Obama administration.
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Eric Volkman has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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