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Jamie Dimon

Executive

PPP
Type
Person
Role
Executive
Programs
PPP
Updated

The profile

Chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, the largest PPP lender: 452,892 loans for $44.3 billion in the SBA's data. Dimon called the program "a tremendous achievement"; borrowers who were left in the queue sued.

Identity and role

James "Jamie" Dimon is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co. The bank's biography describes it as a global financial-services firm with assets of $3.2 trillion. He has been chief executive since January 1, 2006, and chairman since a year later.

Biography / career arc

Dimon began his career at American Express. He was chief financial officer and then president of Commercial Credit, which bought Primerica in 1987 and The Travelers Corporation in 1993. He was president and chief operating officer of Travelers from 1990 to 1998, and co-chairman and co-CEO of Salomon Smith Barney after the 1997 merger of Smith Barney and Salomon Brothers. In 1998 he was named president of Citigroup. He became chairman and chief executive of Bank One in 2000, and president and chief operating officer of JPMorgan Chase when the two banks merged on July 1, 2004. He holds a bachelor's degree from Tufts University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Pandemic-relief / PPP-EIDL role

JPMorgan lent to its own small-business customers. On May 1, 2020, three weeks into the program, it said it expected to fund about $29 billion to more than 239,000 businesses, with an average loan of $123,000. Half the loans went to companies with fewer than five employees and more than three-quarters were under $100,000. The same release said "the firm does not intend to earn a profit from PPP."

Dimon's letter to shareholders for 2020 put the year at "over 280,000 PPP loans for more than $32 billion — the most of any lender," after the bank "processed more than four years' worth of loan applications in 23 days." "The Paycheck Protection Program, while not perfect, was a tremendous achievement," he wrote, and he asked readers to "avoid excessive finger-pointing." In written testimony to the Senate Banking Committee on May 26, 2021, he put the total at "well over 400,000 loans" and "more than $40 billion."

By our count of the SBA's loan-level data, JPMorgan Chase Bank originated 452,892 PPP loans for $44.3 billion: 289,981 loans ($31.4 billion) approved in 2020 and 162,911 ($12.9 billion) in 2021. Wells Fargo, held back by its asset cap, originated 280,717 loans for $13.9 billion.

Their own relief

The SBA's PPP data show no loan to JPMorgan Chase as a borrower; an Alaska firm named JP Morgan Enterprises LLC is unrelated. No relief loan to Dimon personally appears in the documents cited here.

Dimon has not been charged with any crime. The suits were against the bank. Hyde-Edwards Salon & Spa, a Chase customer in San Diego, applied on about April 8, 2020 and was told on April 19 that PPP funds were no longer available. It sued on April 22, alleging that Chase ignored the rule that loans be processed "first come, first served" and instead "prioritized the processing of large loans over smaller loans." These are allegations. On August 5, 2020 the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation refused to combine the Chase borrower suits as MDL No. 2944, finding that "individualized factual issues concerning the circumstances of each loan application" would outweigh any efficiency. On November 23, 2020 the court in Hyde-Edwards granted Chase's motion to compel arbitration and stayed the case.

JPMorgan Chase Bank was also one of seven lenders sued by PPP loan agents seeking a share of lender fees in American Video Duplicating, Inc. v. Citibank, N.A. (C.D. Cal.). The case was dismissed with prejudice by stipulation on February 2, 2021.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

Dimon remains chairman and chief executive. He had long said retirement was five years away; in 2024 he said the timetable was "not five years anymore." In a January 2025 CBS interview reported by Fortune, he said he might remain chairman "for a couple years" after stepping down as CEO and that he did not know who his successor would be. Fortune reported that Daniel Pinto, president and chief operating officer since January 2022, remained the bank's emergency successor.

Sources

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