Jamie Dimon's 2018 Chairman and CEO Letter to Shareholders

Dear Fellow Shareholders,

Once again, I begin this annual letter to shareholders with a sense of pride about our company and our hundreds of thousands of employees around the world. As I look back on the last decade — a period of profound political and economic change — it is remarkable how much we have accomplished, not only in terms of financial performance but in our steadfast dedication to help clients, communities and countries all around the world.

In 2018, we continued to accelerate investments in products, services and technology. For example, for the first time in nearly a decade, we extended our presence in several states with new Chase branches (we plan to open another 400 new branches in the next few years). In addition, we started a new digital investing platform: You Invest; we launched our partnership with Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway in healthcare; we broadened our commitment to create opportunities for jobs and prosperity and reduce the wealth gap for black Americans with Advancing Black Pathways (announced in February 2019); and we launched our AdvancingCities initiative to support job and wage growth in communities most in need of capital. While it is too soon to assess the impact of these efforts, we’re seeing terrific results so far.

2018 was another strong year for JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Financial), with the firm generating record revenue and net income, even without the impact of tax reform. We earned $32.5 billion in net income on revenue 1 of $111.5 billion, reflecting strong underlying performance across our businesses. Adjusting for the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, we now have delivered record results in eight of the last nine years, and we have confidence that we will continue to deliver in the future. Each line of business grew revenue and net income for the year while continuing to make significant investments in products, people and technology. We grew core loans by 7%, increased deposits in total by 3% and generally grew market share across our businesses, all while maintaining credit discipline and a fortress balance sheet. In total, we extended credit and raised capital of $2.5 trillion for businesses, institutional clients and U.S. customers.

In last year’s letter, we emphasized how important a competitive global tax system is for America. Over the last 20 years, as the world reduced its tax rates, America did not. Our previous tax code was increasingly uncompetitive, overly complex, and loaded with special interest provisions that created winners and losers. This drove down capital investment in the United States, which reduced domestic productivity and wage growth. The new tax code establishes a business tax rate that will make the United States competitive around the world and frees U.S. companies to bring back profits earned overseas. The cumulative effect of capital retained and reinvested over many years in the United States will help cultivate strong businesses and ultimately create jobs and increase wages.

For JPMorgan Chase, all things being equal (which they are not), the new lower tax rates added $3.7 billion to net income. For the long term, we expect that some or eventually most of that increase will be erased as companies compete for customers on products, capabilities and prices. However, we did take this opportunity in the short term to massively increase our investments in technology, new branches and bankers, salaries (we now pay a minimum of $31,000 a year for full time entry-level jobs in the United States), philanthropy and lending (specifically in lower income neighborhoods).

As you know, we believe tangible book value per share is a good measure of the value we have created for our shareholders. If our asset and liability values are appropriate — and we believe they are — and if we can continue to deploy this capital profitably, we think we can continue to exceed 15% return on tangible equity for the next several years (and potentially at or above 17% in the near term), assuming there is not a significant downturn. If we can earn these types of returns, our company should ultimately be worth considerably more than tangible book value. The chart above shows that tangible book value “anchors” the stock price.

In the last five years, we have bought back almost $55 billion in stock or approximately 660 million shares, which is nearly 20% of the company’s common shares outstanding. In prior letters, I explained why buying back our stock at tangible book value per share was a no-brainer. Seven years ago, we offered an example of this: If we bought back a large block of stock at tangible book value, earnings and tangible book value per share would be substantially higher just four years later than without the buyback. While we prefer buying back our stock at tangible book value, we think it makes sense to do so even at or above two times tangible book value for reasons similar to those we’ve expressed in the past. If we buy back a big block of stock this year, we would expect (using analysts’ earnings estimates) earnings per share in five years to be 2%–3% higher and tangible book value to be virtually unchanged. We want to remind our shareholders that we much prefer to use our capital to grow than to buy back stock. I discuss stock buybacks later in this letter.

While we don’t run the company worrying about the stock price in the short run, in the long run our stock price is a measure of the progress we have made over the years. This progress is a function of continual investments, in good and bad times, to build our capabilities — our people, systems and products. These important investments drive the future prospects of our company and position it to grow and prosper for decades. Whether looking back over five years, 10 years or since the JPMorgan Chase/Bank One merger (approximately 14 years ago), our stock has significantly outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and the Standard & Poor’s Financials Index. And this growth came during a time of unprecedented challenges for banks — both the Great Recession and the extraordinarily difficult legal, regulatory and political environment that followed.

JPMorgan Chase stock is owned by large institutions, pension plans, mutual funds and directly by individual investors. However, it is important to remember that in almost all cases, the ultimate beneficiaries are individuals in our communities. Well over 100 million people in the United States own stock, and a large percentage of these individuals, in one way or another, own JPMorgan Chase stock. Many of these people are veterans, teachers, police officers, firefighters, retirees, or those saving for a home, school or retirement. Your management team goes to work every day recognizing the enormous responsibility that we have to perform for our shareholders.

In the first section of this letter, I try to give a comprehensive understanding of how we run our company, including how we think about building shareholder value for the long run. In that section, I highlight our strong belief that building shareholder value can only be done in conjunction with taking care of employees, customers and communities. This is completely different from the commentary often expressed about the sweeping ills of naked capitalism and institutions only caring about shareholder value.

In the second section of this letter, I comment on important forward-looking issues. While we remain optimistic about the long-term growth of the United States and the world, the near-term economic and political backdrop is increasingly complex and fraught with risks — both known and unknown. And we face a future with less overall confidence in virtually all institutions, from corporations to governments to the media. The extremely volatile global markets in the fourth quarter of 2018 might be a harbinger of things to come — creating both risks for our company and opportunities to serve our clients.

The third section of this letter is about public policy, specifically American public policy, which is a major concern for our country and, therefore, our company. Again, I try to give a comprehensive, multi-year overview of what I see as some of our problems and suggest a few ways they can be addressed. One consistent theme is completely clear: Businesses, governments and communities need to work as partners, collaboratively and constructively, to analyze and solve problems and help strengthen the economy for everyone’s benefit.

I. JPMorgan Chase Principles and Strategies

1. First and foremost, we look at our business from the point of view of the customer.
2. We endeavor to be the best at anything and everything we do.
3. We will maintain a fortress balance sheet — and fortress financial principles.
4. We lift up our communities.
5. We take care of our employees.
6. We always strive to learn more about management and leadership.
7. We do not worry about some issues.

II. Comments on Current Critical Issues

1. We need to continue to restore trust in the strength of the U.S. banking system and global systemically important financial institutions.
2. We have to remind ourselves that responsible banking is good and safe banking.
3. We believe in good regulation — both to help America grow and improve financial stability.
4. We believe stock buybacks are an essential part of proper capital allocation but secondary to long-term investing.
5. On the importance of the cloud and artificial intelligence, we are all in.
6. We remain devoted and diligent to protect privacy and stay cyber safe — we will do what it takes.
7. We know there are risks on the horizon that will eventually demand our attention.
8. We are prepared for — though we are not predicting — a recession.

III. Public Policy

1. The American Dream is alive — but fraying for many.
2. We must have a proper diagnosis of our problems — the issues are real and serious — if we want to have the proper prescription that leads to workable solutions.
3. All these issues are fixable, but that will happen only if we set aside partisan politics and narrow self-interest — our country must come first.
4. Governments must be better and more effective — we cannot succeed without their help. The rest of us could do a better job, too.
5. CEOs: Your country needs you!
6. America’s global role and engagement are indispensable.

I. JPMorgan Chase Principles and Strategies

In this section, I want to give the reader a comprehensive view of how we run the company. We manage the company consistently with these principles in mind – and they have stood the test of time. We also strive to satisfy, and even exceed, the requirements of our regulators and governments around the globe – and we think these principles are a critical component of that.

1. First and foremost, we look at our business from the point of view of the customer.

Customer needs are what gets our attention. We believe that in a hyper-competitive world (from competitors known and unknown), the best strategy – both offensive and defensive – is to give the customer more: something better, faster or more efficiently. We are always on a quest to improve our products and services, and, for the most part, this is done with enhancements in technology and through the continual training of our people. Most fundamental of all is doing the right thing for our customers – in all cases.

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