Jamie Dimon, America’s top banker, has ‘no plans’ to run for office

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has “no plans” to run for office, according to a statement from the bank Monday.

Speculation about Dimon’s possible future in politics flares up from time to time. The CEO is respected in business circles for his stewardship of JPMorgan, building it into the biggest and most profitable U.S. bank.

Last week, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman tweeted that Dimon should run for president in the upcoming 2024 elections. That came after Dimon said in a recent interview that he would like to one day serve his country “in one capacity or another.”

“As he has said in the past, Jamie has no plans to run for office,” the bank said in its statement Monday.  “He is very happy in his current role.”

Still, Dimon, who took over at JPMorgan in 2005, has himself occasionally fed the speculation. In off-the-cuff remarks in a 2018 investor meeting, Dimon said that he could take on then-President Donald Trump in a race. He quickly said he regretted the comments.

In recent years, Dimon has pushed his institution in new directions, attempting to tackle some of the country’s intractable issues including health care, economic disparity and urban blight.

But his long tenure has sparked questions about succession planning at the New York-based bank.

Last month, at the firm’s annual investor day, an analyst asked Dimon how many more years he expected to serve as CEO. The question came after Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman announced an orderly succession process expected to unfold within the year.

Dimon didn’t directly answer the question.

“I can’t do this forever, I know that,” he said. “But my intensity is the same. I think when I don’t have that kind of intensity, I should leave.”