Wednesday 11 February 2009

JPMorgan wants to repay Tarp funds quickly

JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive officer Jamie Dimon would like to repay the US$25 billion his bank got from the US government ‘as soon as possible’, according to Citigroup analyst Keith Horowitz.

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Guanyu said...

JPMorgan wants to repay Tarp funds quickly

11 February 2009

JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive officer Jamie Dimon would like to repay the US$25 billion his bank got from the US government ‘as soon as possible’, according to Citigroup analyst Keith Horowitz.

‘He expressed confidence that JPMorgan will be among the first banks to repay it,’ Mr. Horowitz wrote in a note to investors on Monday, citing a meeting with Mr. Dimon last week.

Mr. Dimon joins executives at Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley in saying he’s eager to repay money obtained as part of the government’s US$700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp).

Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack told shareholders at a meeting here on Monday he would repay his US$10 billion injection as soon as ‘feasible’.

Goldman chief financial officer David Viniar said on Feb 4 that running the company without government money ‘would be an easier thing to do’.

For JPMorgan to repay the government money within the first three years, the bank would have to raise US$25 billion in Tier 1 capital to replace the investment.

‘If there were amendments to the rules that would allow firms to pay off Tarp in the first three years without raising capital, we believe JPMorgan would very strongly consider it,’ Mr. Horowitz wrote.

David Trone, an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Waller, said last week that the government is likely to waive its requirement that the companies raise new common or preferred equity before paying back the money. - Bloomberg