Jamie Dimon's $770M haul and the deregulation bonanza making banking great again
Jan 6, 2026
Key Points
- JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon earned $770 million in 2025 as the Trump administration dismantled post-2008 financial regulations wholesale, removing constraints that had limited big bank profitability for a generation.
- Big bank stocks surged 29% in 2025 by riding deregulation across trading, M&A, real estate, and cryptocurrency, while smaller lenders lagged with less diversified revenue streams.
- Loosening crypto and lending restrictions eliminates competitive advantages that unregulated private credit funds and digital asset platforms had carved out from traditional banking.
Summary
Jamie Dimon pulled in $770 million in 2025 through salary, bonuses, dividends, stock grants, and appreciation as JPMorgan Chase rode a deregulation wave that has made banking more profitable than it has been in a generation.
The Trump administration is dismantling post-2008 financial crisis regulations wholesale, attacking regulatory agencies themselves rather than just pruning individual rules. Regulators have loosened restrictions on riskier assets, allowing banks back into cryptocurrency. Trump paused enforcement of foreign anti-bribery rules. The cumulative effect is a regulatory environment built for large banks.
Mergers and acquisitions are heating up again. The Netflix-Paramount bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery signals renewed deal flow. Falling interest rates and a permissive antitrust regime are removing friction from the M&A business. Real estate loans, once imperiled, are stabilizing as office work rebounds. Equity and bond markets are near record levels, gold and silver have surged, and trading volumes are feeding Wall Street's profit machine.
Big bank stocks rose 29% in 2025, nearly double the broader stock market's gain. Smaller lenders and community banks, which focus on residential mortgages and consumer checking, gained less because they lack the diversified revenue streams of mega-banks.
Private credit funds, operating with looser regulation than traditional banks, had captured deals while banks sat on the sidelines. Deregulation is now leveling that playing field. The same dynamic applies to cryptocurrency. Unregulated competitors made traditional banking look unnecessarily constrained. Loosening crypto restrictions removes a reason for customers to leave.
Dimon's $770 million haul includes unrealized stock gains. The broader pattern is unmistakable: 2025 was the year JPMorgan's chief executive and the banking industry broadly stopped operating with hands tied behind its back.