The head of JPMorgan Chase and a potential treasury secretary candidate says he’s gearing up for a “knife fight” with the country’s top consumer watchdog agency — just after a lobbying group that he chairs sued the agency to protect a scheme that prevents consumers from switching banks and particularly benefits his own bank.
The attacks come as corporate interests explicitly call for the ouster of successful consumer protection reformers within Joe Biden’s administration — and suggest that no matter who wins the election, big banks will be angling to ensure that they’re free to waylay and swindle their customers.
In a presentation on Monday with the American Bankers Association, a banking industry group, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon blasted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the federal consumer watchdog agency, and its director, Rohit Chopra, warning of an “onslaught” of regulation against banks.
“If you’re in a knife fight, you better damn well bring a knife,” Dimon said of industry efforts to stop regulators.
Part of that “onslaught” is a new CFPB rule that will make it far easier for consumers to change banks — a step toward an “open banking” system that was envisioned by financial reformers after the 2008 financial crisis, in which predatory lending caused banks to fail and led to a global economic meltdown. (That year, JPMorgan Chase, helmed by Dimon, received a $12 billion bailout from the Federal Reserve.)
The CFPB finalized this rule last week. To come into compliance, banks will now have to allow consumers to access their personal financial data and transfer it to a new bank quickly and free of charge, which proponents say will help free consumers who say they are…
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Auteur: Katya Schwenk
