JP Morgan will need “much less” office space in the coming years, as some investment bank employees are permanently granted part-time work at home.
The bank is expected to need 60 seats per 100 people, writes manager Jamie Dimon in his annual shareholders letter.
He also warned that the bank may have removed people from London and Europe because of Brexit.
He said Europe “has had, and will continue to have, the upper hand” in the Brexit talks.
Impact Of Brexit
How many leave the UK depends on still unresolved questions in those talks about how financial services will operate, he said.
“We may reach a tipping point many years out when it may make sense to move all functions that service Europe out of the United Kingdom and into continental Europe,” Mr Dimon said.
In the letter, he warned that a split in Europe would undermine the UK’s economic prospects in the coming years.
“Brexit was accomplished, but many issues still need to be negotiated. And in those negotiations, Europe has had, and will continue to have, the upper hand, ” he said.
“In the short run (ie, the next few years), this cannot possibly be a positive for the United Kingdom’s GDP.”
His outlook for the UK contrasted with his forecast for the US, where he said a “boom” could run through 2023.
Corporate Changes In America
Mr Dimon said growth in the US would be reflected in government spending plans – which include billions of dollars in emergency medical assistance – and “euphoria” about the end of the pandemic, backed by savings families have built up during lockdowns.
“The permanent effect of this boom will be fully known only when we see the quality, effectiveness and sustainability of the infrastructure and other government investments,” he said.
At the same time, he said the US needed major reforms to address growing income inequality, which he blamed for driving populist political movements on the left and right.
He called for higher wages, higher taxes for the rich and an end to tax breaks that benefit private equity funds, race cars and private airlines.
The United States should also invest in modern “infrastructure” and introduce a carbon tax that will help address climate change, he said.
“Many of our citizens are unsettled, and the fault line for all this discord is a fraying American dream – the enormous wealth of our country is accruing to the very few. In other words, the fault line is inequality,” he said.”Most of the citizens have no peace, and the fault of all these conflicts is America’s nightmare – our country’s greatest wealth has accumulated very few. In other words, the line of error is inequality,” he said.
