JPMorgan Opens Geopolitics Arm as Dimon Warns of ‘Hinge Point’

- JPMorgan Chase & Co. created a unit aimed at guiding clients through geopolitical risk, which Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon has said dwarfs any other concern throughout his career.

The biggest US bank launched its “Center for Geopolitics” Wednesday with research on Russia and Ukraine, the Middle East and global rearmament. Further reports will be released on a quarterly basis, with plans to cover hot-button issues including populism and artificial intelligence. Executives leading the effort will also participate in events and host client sessions.

“Whether you’re a Fortune 100 company or a mid-market company, geopolitics is impacting your bottom lines, it’s impacting your outlook,” Derek Chollet, who joined JPMorgan earlier this year to oversee the initiative, said in an interview. “We want to provide a broad frame and how to think about it, but also some practical insights to just try to make sense of what is undoubtedly a confusing and at times very uncertain global landscape.”

Wall Street firms have been adding former military leaders, White House staff, diplomats and even spies to their ranks in recent years as they seek to navigate global tensions. Earlier this month, Citigroup Inc. hired President Donald Trump’s former trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, to advise clients on US foreign and economic policy. Last year, JPMorgan brought on retired General Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as a senior adviser.

Dimon began warning about geopolitical challenges shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. More recently, he’s described the state of the world as the most dangerous and complicated since World War II, and at the firm’s investor day Monday he said geopolitical risk is “very, very, very high.” Last year he asked Peter Scher, JPMorgan’s vice chairman, to set up a unit to provide clients with insights on the ever-changing landscape.

“We are once again at a hinge point in history,” Dimon wrote in a note accompanying the reports released Wednesday. “The post-Covid world is defined by new and competing forces: global competition alongside deep interconnectedness, rapid technological change, economic volatility, regional conflict, geopolitical rivalry, and mounting pressure on democratic institutions. Our greatest risk is geopolitical risk.”

Scher recruited Chollet, who until January was chief of staff to Biden-era defense secretary Lloyd Austin, and Lisa Sawyer, who was also at the Pentagon until January. Chollet earlier held positions across the Pentagon, State Department, White House and Congress, and Sawyer worked in JPMorgan’s global government relations group before joining the Biden administration.

The reports walk through key dynamics, challenges and potential scenarios for each topic. For example, “A New Middle East Chessboard” lays out a “diplomatic hat trick” for the US, digs into three “gamechangers,” and puts odds on certain outcomes. “Russia-Ukraine Endgame and the Future of Eu Bloomberg's Hannah Levitt reports.

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