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Outspoken CEO, undeterred by recent setbacks, defends the industry's right to confront Washington, denies 'whale' losses prompted exec shuffle, dismisses chatter that he's headed to Treasury.
December 12 -
Yes, megabanks provide useful, all-in-one services. But their biggest customers challenge the argument that financial behemoths should be held together for their sake.
August 21 -
In his 40 years in banking, William B. Harrison Jr. has seen major regulatory changes, among them the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
October 27
William B. Harrison Jr., the
A decade ago, Harrison helped
"There's no question … that [big banks'] size and scale and leadership position, if managed well, have immense value to shareholders and immense value to the clients and customers they serve," Harrison said during a speech on Tuesday evening in New York.
"The idea of breaking up the banks is not a good one. We have the best banks in the world," he added.
His remarks implicitly repudiated
His speech Tuesday aired a list of current banking industry complaints, from the eternal debate over who was most responsible for the financial crisis to the burden of new regulations. Harrison said banks have been unfairly blamed for being "100% responsible" for the crisis; he attributed only 30% to 35% of the blame to the industry, calling "the government's involvement in the policies of housing" with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac more at fault. He also mentioned regulators, rating agencies and "the American public" as partially-guilty parties.
"In my opinion, banks were not responsible for 100% of the problem. And when we treat them like they were responsible, we get what we have today, which is more regulation, not better regulation," Harrison said. "We have capital requirements … that will make us not competitive in the U.S. with other global banks. … That is not a good thing for this country."
Harrison, 69, was
Bowles threw his support behind the defense of big banks, telling the gala attendees that Harrison "recognized early on the need for more consolidation in the financial services industry."
Financial consolidation was a
Bowles also praised Dimon, implicitly defending the current JPMorgan Chase CEO against some of the criticisms he has faced since last spring's London Whale trading losses came to light.
"If you ask Bill Harrison what his greatest accomplishment was, what his greatest acquisition was, he'd tell you Bank One, because that acquisition brought JPMorgan the leader that Bill knew it needed to achieve its potential and success," Bowles said. "Bill knew that Jamie was the right person to lead JPMorgan in the 21st century."
The museum organized the gala to present Harrison with its John C. Whitehead Award for distinguished public service and financial leadership. Previous recipients included former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who