The Jamie Dimon Interview: How JP Morgan Became an $800 Billion Bank

1. BGBen Gilbert0:00

   David, we completely blew it. We went into Jamie Dimon's office, had our little meet and greet. We did not ask about the dual pistols.

2. DRDavid Rosenthal0:09

   Yeah, from the duel, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, which J.P. Morgan owns and keeps in their headquarters, and we blew it. We didn't ask to see them. We'll just have to come back.

3. BGBen Gilbert0:21

   When they finish the new building, I'm sure they will be in the executive floor. We can go get a viewing of the, uh, you know, piece of American history.

4. DRDavid Rosenthal0:29

   All right, speaking of American history, let's do it.

5. BGBen Gilbert0:32

   Let's do it. [upbeat music]

6. SPSpeaker0:35

   Radio City! Are you ready? Who got the truth? Yeah. Is it you, is it you, is it you? Who got the truth now, now? Is it you, is it you, is it you? Take me down, say it straight. I want the story all the way. Who got the truth now, now? Who got the truth?

7. BGBen Gilbert1:00

   Welcome to the Summer 2025 season of Acquired, the podcast about great companies and the stories and playbooks behind them. I'm Ben Gilbert.

8. DRDavid Rosenthal1:09

   I'm David Rosenthal.

9. BGBen Gilbert1:10

   And we are your hosts. Today's episode is the story of a rising star on Wall Street in the 1980s, who worked with his mentor to merge and acquire their way to the top of the financial world in the '90s, who then got fired unexpectedly by that same mentor, who cast about deciding what to do next, and then in 2000, accepted a job turning around a poorly run Midwestern bank. Then, over the next twenty-five years, he would orchestrate one of the most remarkable runs in banking history, and really, all of corporate history. This is the story of Jamie Dimon, and how he created the modern financial behemoth, JPMorgan Chase, out of the beleaguered component parts of Bank One, JPMorgan Chase, Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, and First Republic. Jamie is now the longest-serving CEO of any major Wall Street bank and is viewed as kind of the great stabilizer of the American financial system, especially during the 2008 financial crisis. He now sits atop the largest bank in the US with an over eight hundred billion dollar market cap, which is more than twice their nearest competitor. They are the only bank within spitting distance of the sort of big trillion-dollar tech companies that we've covered here on Acquired. And to really put a finer point on the dominance, they are the most valuable company east of the Mississippi in the United States, and the only company east of the Mississippi worth more than half a trillion dollars.

10. DRDavid Rosenthal2:40

    Incredible.

11. BGBen Gilbert2:41

    So the question, of course, is: how did he do it? I mean, banks fail. Financial firms often have spectacular blowups, and large organizations, period, financial or not, can often get so bloated that they slow down to a crawl. So what did Jamie Dimon do differently? Well, today's episode, we have Jamie with us, himself, to tell the story. We recorded this live in front of six thousand Acquired fans at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. So you'll notice it's a different format than our usual episode. We're always trying to figure out what version of Acquired works live with an audience, and this is our latest iteration. The Radio City show also had a second act, a late-night talk show, where we had conversations with the CEO of The New York Times, Meredith Kobett Levien, and the chairman of IAC, Barry Diller, plus some cameos from around the Acquired cinematic universe, and we cannot wait to share all of that with you at a later date. Well, if you want to know every time an episode drops, check out our email list, acquired.fm/email. Come join the Slack and talk about this with us afterwards, acquired.fm/slack. If you want more Acquired between each monthly episode, check out ACQ2, our interview show, where we talk with founders and CEOs building businesses in areas we've covered on the show. And before we dive in, we want to briefly thank our presenting partner, J.P. Morgan. [laughing]

12. DRDavid Rosenthal4:00

    [laughing] Yes, the same J.P. Morgan, which is funny, because when we started planning this show together, gosh, almost a year ago, it was immediately clear to Ben and me that the very best person who Acquired could interview in New York also happened to be their CEO.

13. BGBen Gilbert4:15

    And as you all know from the episodes over the last couple years, J.P. Morgan has been a fantastic partner of ours, and their payments team demoed all kinds of cool technology at the event. Our huge thanks to the J.P. Morgan team for putting on the show with us, and if you ever want to learn more, just click the link in the show notes and tell them that Ben and David sent you. So with that, this show is not investment advice. Dave and I may have investments in the companies we discuss, and this show is for informational and entertainment purposes only. On to our conversation with Jamie Dimon. [audience cheering] Well, this feels appropriate. [laughing]

14. DRDavid Rosenthal4:45

    [laughing]

15. JDJamie Dimon4:45

    You guys dressed up for me. [laughing]

16. BGBen Gilbert4:48

    [laughing] You dressed up for us, too. Thank you.

17. DRDavid Rosenthal4:51

    Last year, we had you on the video board at, at, at Chase, and, uh, you were looking very summery there. You look great tonight.

18. JDJamie Dimon4:57

    Thank you.

19. BGBen Gilbert4:58

    Yes. Well, we know you're a big history buff, and we consider ourselves historians above all else. So, uh, what we'd like to do here tonight is walk through the twenty-year story with you of sort of how you turned JPMorgan Chase from a bank among of many-- a, a bank among many, to the most systemically important financial institution in the world. Are you game?

20. DRDavid Rosenthal5:20

    Sound good?

21. JDJamie Dimon5:21

    Sounds great.

22. DRDavid Rosenthal5:22

    All right.

23. JDJamie Dimon5:22

    Thank you. Yeah. [laughing]

24. BGBen Gilbert5:22

    [laughing]

25. DRDavid Rosenthal5:24

    Uh, we want to start in 1998. You and your mentor, Sandy Weill, have just spent the past thirteen years building the modern financial institution conglomerate, really the, the, the blueprint for what JPMorgan Chase is today, except it's not J.P. Morgan, it's Citigroup. And everybody on Wall Street and the entire world expects that you are gonna be named CEO of Citigroup in short order.

26. BGBen Gilbert5:52

    This is 1998.

27. DRDavid Rosenthal5:53

    1998. This is not what happens. Instead, you get fired, and you have to restart your whole career, everything, your whole life from scratch.

28. BGBen Gilbert6:03

    Sorry to start here, by the way. [laughing]

29. DRDavid Rosenthal6:05

    Yeah. [laughing] But, but, but before we get into what you do next-

30. DRDavid Rosenthal6:09

    ... what was the model that you and Sandy built at Citigroup?

Episode duration: 1:06:01