JPMorgan’s Dimon Met With Romney: Official

By Jonathan D. Salant - Sep 29, 2011 3:52 AM GMT+0700
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James "Jamie" Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., speaks at a conference on global capital markets competitiveness hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s chief executive officer who has been critical of new banking rules, met yesterday with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney who has called for their repeal.

Dimon, who was once dubbed President Barack Obama’s “favorite banker” by The New York Times, publicly questioned Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke in June on financial regulatory costs. He also called and e-mailed lawmakers as House and Senate negotiators wrote the final banking bill.

He met with Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and co- founder of the Boston-based private equity firm Bain Capital LLC, in New York yesterday morning, according to a JPMorgan official speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to comment on the meeting.

Andrea Saul, a Romney spokeswoman, did not respond to requests for comment.

Dimon, a board member of the New York Fed, has been among the business executives who met with Obama at the White House. He was once considered a candidate to become treasury secretary before the president tapped Timothy Geithner.

He has not donated to any presidential candidates this year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group that tracks political giving.

Employees of New York-based JPMorgan gave $808,799 to Obama for his 2008 campaign, second only to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. among financial companies. Dimon was not among the Obama donors.

In his jobs plan, Romney called for repeal of the new financial law. He said it “sends a flood of new regulations washing over the financial sector and anyone seeking to borrow money to buy a home or build a business.”

Romney’s stance has strong appeal on Wall Street, where he has raised more money than Obama so far this year, and more than 100 people -- mostly investors -- who gave to the president during his 2008 race have now contributed to Romney’s presidential bid.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net.