Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Jamie Dimon got in a verbal brawl after she labeled the JPMorgan Chase CEO the “star of the overdraft show.”
The Massachusetts Democrat, a vocal Wall Street opponent who sits further to the left than most of her Democratic colleagues, tore into JPMorgan for bringing in revenue from overdraft fees last year during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Your bank JPMorgan collects more than seven times as much money in overdraft fees per account than your competitors. So, Mr. Dimon, how much did JPMorgan collect in overdraft fees from their consumers in 2020?” Warren asked.
“Well, I think your numbers are totally inaccurate, but we’ll have to sit down privately to go through that,” Dimon responded before Warren cut him off and said the figures were public knowledge.
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The two began talking over each other with raised voices. Dimon attempted to defend his company’s practices. Warren said bank regulators recommended banks waive overdraft fees for customers during the pandemic, and Dimon responded that his bank waived fees for those who needed relief.
Warren again asked Dimon if he knew how much his bank collected in overdraft fees last year.
“I don’t have the number in front of me, but upon request, we waived the fees,” Dimon said as Warren spoke over him, saying the figure comes out to $1.46 billion. She then asked if his bank “would have been in financial trouble” if JPMorgan would have waived overdraft fees.
“We waived the fees for customers upon request if they were under stress because of COVID,” he said, with Warren accusing him of ducking her question. She also blasted the other banks attending the Wednesday Banking Committee hearing: Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup.
“You and your colleagues come in today to talk about how you stepped up and took care of customers during the pandemic, and it’s a bunch of baloney. In fact, it’s about $4 billion worth of baloney, but you can fix that right now,” she said.
Warren then asked Dimon if he would commit to refunding the overdraft fees during the pandemic.
Dimon simply responded: “No.”
She also asked the rest of those in attendance if they would agree to refund the overdraft fees collected during the pandemic last year, and the room remained silent.
“I didn’t think so,” Warren said.
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Wednesday was the first time the CEOs jointly testified before the committee since the 2008 financial crisis. They will also testify before the House Financial Services Committee Thursday at noon.
