JPMorgan Chase's defining moves.
The defining strategic moves at JPMorgan Chase — each one explained and grounded in the record.
The Adjacency Expansion · Adjacency Expansion
JPMorgan Didn't Build the Everything-Bank. It Was Handed the Pieces in a Fire.
JPMorgan Chase now sits on $4 trillion in assets. The story it tells is visionary expansion. The truth is messier: regulators kept handing it distressed balance sheets at fire-sale prices, and it kept saying yes.
8 min
The Crisis Response · Decision Forks
JPMorgan Didn't Win 2008. It Got Handed Two Wrecks and a $19 Billion Bill.
The legend says Jamie Dimon swooped in and bought Bear Stearns for $2 a share. The $2 price was the government's idea, the deal more than quintupled in eight days, and the legal bill ran past $19 billion. Dimon's verdict: he'd never do it again.
8 min
The Turnaround · Decision Forks
JPMorgan Didn't Win 2008. It Was Drafted to Win It.
JPMorgan came out of the crisis bigger than ever — $2.175 trillion in assets by year-end 2008. But it earned just $5.6 billion that year and paid out 114% of it in dividends. The bank wasn't the smartest player in 2008. It was the chosen one.
8 min
The Adjacency Expansion · Adjacency Expansion
JPMorgan Bought Three Fintechs to Defend Itself. Only the Quiet Ones Worked.
JPMorgan's fintech deals are read as a bank fighting off disruption. Two of them - WePay and Nutmeg - bought real capability and doubled assets. The third, Frank, paid $175 million for fewer than 300,000 real customers and ended in an 85-month prison sentence.
8 min
The Moat Anatomy · Moat Anatomy
JPMorgan's Moat Isn't Being Big. It's Being Big Enough to Make Size Free.
JPMorgan spends ~$17B a year on technology — a budget it spreads across $4 trillion in assets, the #1 global IB fee share, and ~$10 trillion in daily payment flows. The result is a per-unit cost floor a regional rival simply cannot reach.
7 min