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JPMorgan $JPM -2.36% Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Wednesday that the bank could put up to $20 billion toward an acquisition in the coming years, according to CNBC.
"There might be, in the next couple years, a chance to put $10 [billion] or $20 billion to work buying something," Dimon told analysts at a New York financial conference. A deal of that magnitude would be the largest of his 20-year tenure leading the bank.
Dimon framed any potential deal as a conditional opportunity rather than a strategic priority. He set out conditions for what a deal would have to look like: the target would have to slot into the bank's existing structure, align with its culture, and add to core business lines rather than exist as a separate entity. "It can't be just a pie-in-the-sky type of thing," he said. The bank's first focus remains organic growth, according to The Wall Street Journal, with regulatory changes and strong profits giving the bank greater flexibility to deploy capital.
Dimon also cautioned against using dealmaking as a substitute for building a business. "You sit around a lot of management meetings, the first thing they do when they're not doing well in organic growth is they start to bullsh-t about M&A," he said. "I don't want to hear about M&A... What are you doing to grow your business — sales, branches, tech, profits, products, services?"
