Barney Frank: Was Never Against JP Morgan Being Too Big

JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM CEO, Jamie Dimon, recently wrote his annual letter to shareholders in which he argued against the new regulations on banks. However, he appreciated the safety of the financial system and was positive that the size of JP Morgan doesn't pose a risk to the system. Politician and CNBC contributor Barney Frank was recently seen discussing the size of financial institutions and the regulation on which he disagrees with Dimon. Too Big To Fail? "Well first on whether or not it's too big, that's not something on which I have expressed an opinion," Frank said. "We did, I guess, implicitly expressed that opinion, because in the legislation we differed with those who said we had to reduce the size of the institutions. One of the problems I have had with people who tell me that we should by government action reduce these is I don't know to what size they want us to get down." "If the argument is that no institution should be big enough so that its failure has reverberating consequences then nobody could be as big as Lehman was because it was Lehman that touched it off". On being asked specifically if he was never against JP Morgan being too big, Frank replied, "correct". Disagree With Dimon Here is a regulation where I believe he was wrong, we did empower the regulators and they acted to put regulations on the derivatives trading of the foreign subsidiaries of American institutions. Mr. Dimon was very angry about that, but frankly his case against it weakened when the London whale, his foreign subsidiary, not only lost billions and billions of dollars, but he didn't know for a while how much was at risk."