Big banks are predicting a major recession, the deepest one in the post-war era. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said his bank cannot be immune to the resulting financial stress while Bank of America expects the U.S. economy to “collapse” and Deutsche Bank has forecasted a severe global recession.
Also read: IMF Declares Global Recession, 80 Countries Request Help, Trillions of Dollars Needed
JPMorgan Chase CEO: ‘We Cannot Be Immune’
In his annual letter to shareholders published this week, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon outlined measures the bank has taken to prepare for the “actual new crisis.” Dimon admitted, “We do not know how this crisis will ultimately end, including how long it will last, how much economic damage it will do, or how fast or slow the recovery will be.”
Dimon further explained, “We stopped buying back our stock,” noting that halting buybacks was a prudent action. The JPMorgan CEO continued, “we don’t know exactly what the future will hold – but at a minimum, we assume that it will include a bad recession combined with some kind of financial stress similar to the global financial crisis of 2008,” elaborating:
Knowing there will be a major recession mean that we are exposing ourselves to billions of dollars of additional credit losses … Our bank cannot be immune to the effects of this kind of stress.
Bank of America Forecasts a ‘Deep Plunge’
Bank of America U.S. economist Michelle Meyer wrote in a note to clients, published in March,
