25th
Bail money
On an employee-only conference call, a JP Morgan Chase employee asked:
“Chase recently received $25 billion in federal funding. What effect will that have on the business side and will it change our strategic lending policy?”
A JP Morgan Chase executive answered this nugget of love:
“Twenty-five billion dollars is obviously going to help the folks who are struggling more than Chase,” he began. “What we do think it will help us do is perhaps be a little bit more active on the acquisition side or opportunistic side for some banks who are still struggling. And I would not assume that we are done on the acquisition side just because of the Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns mergers. I think there are going to be some great opportunities for us to grow in this environment, and I think we have an opportunity to use that $25 billion in that way and obviously depending on whether recession turns into depression or what happens in the future, you know, we have that as a backstop.”
Let me translate that. Major banks have no intention to use the federal bailout money for anything other than competitive acquisitions - especially not for its intended and necessary purpose of increasing lending to restore stability to the financial markets.
No intention to use the tax payer funded bailout money for anything other than their own market advantage.
