The Daily Telegraph

JP Morgan chief reschedule­s UK visit after Covid rule snub

- By Lucy Burton

‘Imagine telling all the shareholde­rs that Jamie Dimon is in a hotel [under quarantine] for two weeks’

JP MORGAN boss Jamie Dimon is preparing to visit London for the first time since the pandemic hit after snubbing the capital on his last trip to Europe due to UK quarantine rules.

Mr Dimon, Wall Street’s longestser­ving bank boss, is due to meet UK clients and staff next month after spooking Whitehall in June when he bypassed a visit to the City due to strict quarantine restrictio­ns and spent time in Paris instead.

The billionair­e banker was forced to drop a visit to the bank’s European headquarte­rs in London while visiting Europe, where he went to a “Choose France” event at the Palace of Versailles as Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, sought to lure global banks away from the City.

At the time, UK rules required all passengers to quarantine for 10 days if they were travelling from amber list countries such as France and the US, which made business trips impossible.

One insider said at the time: “Imagine telling shareholde­rs that Jamie Dimon is in a hotel for two weeks.”

Weeks later, the Government reintroduc­ed quarantine-free travel for senior executives. Sources said that there was consternat­ion in Whitehall after Mr Dimon met Mr Macron in Paris but did not visit the UK, with ministers taking action to relax the rules because of concerns that the City could lose major investment to rivals.

Mr Dimon’s September trip to the UK also comes as JP Morgan, America’s biggest bank, edges closer to targeting UK households by launching its own online bank to take on challenger firms such as Monzo. His visit could also result in a fresh push for a return to the office in London, with the banker a vocal advocate of workers returning to headquarte­rs.

Mr Dimon is the only bank chief still in the same job since before the 2008 financial crisis. He was paid $31.5m (£23.2m) in 2020 and was last month offered a “special award” by the bank to stay in the role for longer.

A JP Morgan spokesman declined to comment on his forthcomin­g visit.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom