Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, is set to warn UK Chancellor John Healey against raising taxes on banks in his October budget. Dimon will meet Healey on Wednesday and caution that higher taxes could put investment and employment at risk in the UK. This follows speculation that Healey may introduce a windfall tax on banks and oil companies in his budget on 28 October.
Dimon has long opposed UK bank taxes, which were imposed after the 2008 financial crisis, arguing that further increases could have adverse consequences. In August, he warned Healey that higher levies could negatively impact jobs, citing a decline in finance roles in New York due to the city’s tax regime. Dimon successfully lobbied against higher taxes in Rachel Reeves’ budget last year, hosting Varun Chandra, the prime minister’s business envoy, at a celebration for King Charles at JP Morgan’s Manhattan headquarters.
Despite plans to build a 3 million sq ft tower in London’s Canary Wharf as a UK headquarters, Dimon has said he could abandon the project if a new Labour government hostile to banks replaces Keir Starmer. Meanwhile, calls for higher bank taxes have come from the TUC and Positive Money, who argue such a tax could help address rising household costs. UK’s top four banks—HSBC, NatWest, Barclays, and Lloyds Banking Group—earned £200 billion in pre-tax profits over the past five years, largely due to rising interest rates.
They paid an estimated £43.3 billion in taxes for the financial year ending March 2025.
Source: The Guardian
