Hey, everybody. It's Kai Rizdahl. Thanks for downloading the Corner Office podcast. Another fresh episode for you today. This time, Jamie Diamond, the CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, arguably the most influential bank CEO in the country. Also, and perhaps related, he is the longest serving chief executive on Wall Street, 14 years,

which means he was running J.P. Morgan during the financial crisis.

We met, literally, in his corner office on the 48th floor of J.P. Morgan Chase's headquarters in New York City.

We're expecting you.

Don't you have a seat? Ready to go to work? Jimmy Donnell, welcome to the program. Happy to be here. Thank you for having me. So I was reading all this stuff on you before I came to sit down, and I was trying to figure out how a guy from Queens grew up to run the biggest bank in the company. And here's what I came up with. And I'd be interested in your take on this.

And you're smiling now. I think it's because you're careful. I think it's because you're super cautious. What do you think? I am partially super cautious, yes. And I always tell people of the bank, and we spend more time at risk mitigation than taking risk, trying to figure out how we can serve our clients

and minimize the risk that that creates.

But I do want to point out, I came from Queens.

Yeah. mitigation than taking risk, trying to figure out how we can serve our clients and minimize

the risk that that creates. But I do want to point out, I came from Queens. My grandparents were

immigrants. Right. But my grandfather started at a bank, the Bank of Atlantic, which is partially

owned by the Greek National Bank at the time. Eventually, after World War II became a stock broker,

my father became a stockbroker, and I read

like Graham and Dodd in high school.

Really? Yeah. So when you were a kid, you were in this? Yeah, I liked it. I have two brothers. I have a twin brother who became an educator, and an older brother became a physicist, you know, real physicist, Nielsberg Institute, IBM Labs, etc. I was the only one who was interested in what my dad was doing.

Do you think people understand bang IBM Labs, etc. I was the only one who was interested in what my dad was doing.

Do you think people understand banks in this economy like you understood banks when you were a kid?

People understand banks as a consumer. So, you know, if you've taken a mortgage, you have a checking account,

if you have a business you need a loan, if you're a large corporation, you have to sell equity of debt,

that they understand. They don't necessarily understand the inner workings of a bank. Does it matter? Well, it does to me, but I don't think it should matter to the customer. No, what the customer wants is a good experience and, you know, a good credit card and a good... Yeah, but does it matter whether American consumers understand the way the financial system works?

I think it matters that they understand how business in general works.

So if you don't have a financial system, you don't have an economy.

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