November 16, 2009

The banking industry, at the big bank level anyway, has gotten religious when it comes to PR. Goldman Sachs and Citi group seem to have embarked on new campaigns with mixed results. Most of the lobbying campaigns are conducted out of public view.But every now and then we get an op-ed piece. The latest comes from Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase. He's considered one of the most powerful men in the industry--only Lloyd Blankfein of CEO can match his influence--and is willing to put his views on the line.

In a piece in the Washington Post, he extolled the virtues of large banks and excoriated artificial caps on the size of banks.Who but large banks can effectively service the multinational corporations and their diverse financial needs? This isn't exactly scintillating material, but the industry got one of their big guns out on the issue. In many ways, he's preaching to the choir. No one really thinks that large banks will be legislated away. Some may do that all on its own.