Dimon Confident in Firm’s Tech, Despite ‘Very Smart’ Challengers

• April 05 2018
• Julie Verhage

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon isn’t letting some “very smart” Silicon Valley challengers rattle his confidence in the bank’s technological prowess.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon isn’t letting some “very smart” Silicon Valley challengers rattle his confidence in the bank’s technological prowess.

In his annual letter to shareholders, Dimon touted the firm’s fleet of 31,000 people focusing on development and engineering, and expounded on their work with artificial intelligence, big data and machine learning. He specifically singled out systems they’ve helped to unfurl for clients, predicting it will “solidify and grow our position.”

“We expect these products to drive lots of customer interactions,” he said, “even as some very smart fintech competitors emerge.”

The note comes just weeks after one of his counterparts in Silicon Valley, PayPal Holdings Inc. CEO Dan Schulman, shrugged off a peer-to-peer mobile payments system called Zelle that JPMorgan and dozens of other big banks unveiled last year to defend their dominance in handling money.

“We’re seeing no no impact from Zelle,” Schulman, whose company operates the popular Venmo app, told a conference in February, explaining why he isn’t concerned about the financial industry’s entrant. “Banks have had peer-to-peer payments for 10 years.”