Jamie Dimon Vows JPMorgan Chase Will Fight CLARITY Act

JPMorgan Chase is going to fight the Clarity Act, Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said Friday (May 29).

Speaking on the Fox Business show “Mornings with Maria,” Dimon said that if crypto companies like Coinbase are going to take deposits like a bank, they should be regulated like a bank and should be required to follow anti-money laundering (AML), Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and know your customer (KYC) rules.

“We have requirements to build branches in lower-income neighborhoods; we have liquidity requirements, capital requirements, reporting requirements; we have like 84 regulators all over us,” Dimon said. “We’re just saying it should be fair and equal, period, not that they can’t do what they want to do.”

Asked if he considers crypto companies to be competition, Dimon said no. He said the real competition is coming from several FinTechs that are taking slices of the banking business.

As for stablecoins, Dimon said he is “not that worried” about them and noted that the bank already has JPMorgan deposit coins. Dimon said that when stablecoins are used, there are transaction costs on both sides, because the parties must buy and sell the stablecoins, and there is movement of money risk.

Dimon said he does think stablecoins will be used for cross-border payments, small-dollar payments and person-to-person transfers.

He added that even for person-to-person transfers, banks have requirements around who is sending the money and who is receiving it.

“So, it’s complicated, and the government needs to do it thoughtfully,” Dimon said. “If they don’t do it thoughtfully, it will be a huge problem.”

Asked about the Clarity Act, Dimon said he is not happy with it because it effectively allows digital asset companies to pay interest on deposits such as stablecoins without the protections that should be in place and without AML/BSA requirements.

“So, no, the banks will not accept it that way,” Dimon said. Asked about the progress the bill is making, Dimon said: “We’ll fight it. If we lose, we lose, and we’ll live. But it will be fought.”

PYMNTS reported Monday (May 25) that the Clarity Act passed a key markup vote May 14 but that the digital asset bill’s path forward to passage is far from guaranteed.