Wall Street’s defense of its DEI initiatives suddenly got a lot more complicated.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, a longtime advocate of diversity and using bank resources to aid minority communities, told employees this past week during a town hall that he “was never a firm believer in bias training” and had questions about money being spent on certain DEI programs.
“I saw how we were spending money on some of this stupid shit, and it really pissed me off,” Dimon said, according to a recording of the town hall obtained by Yahoo Finance. “I’m just going to cancel them. I don’t like wasted money in bureaucracy.”
Bloomberg first reported on those comments.
Dimon was not specific about what he would cancel. He also said the bank’s approach to Black, Hispanic, and LGBTQ communities would not change, and that any plans for certain DEI initiatives were unrelated to Donald Trump’s election as president.
What was notable about Dimon’s new comments is how outspoken he has been about his willingness to fight outside efforts to change JPMorgan’s DEI policies.
“Bring them on,” Dimon said about activist efforts targeting DEI during an interview with CNBC last month.
Some of the biggest companies on Wall Street, including JPMorgan, are increasingly targets of conservative activists seeking changes to DEI policies across corporate America.
Over the past year, such pressure has contributed to DEI retreats at a number of other high-profile companies, including Meta (META), Walmart (WMT), McDonald’s (MCD), Lowe’s (LOW), Ford (F), Tractor Supply (TSCO), John Deere (DE), and Target (TGT).
Many of these retreats were influenced by a recent US Supreme Court decision on affirmative action at colleges and universities, a ruling that prompted conservative groups to ramp up their efforts to eliminate diverse hiring practices.
Corporate diversity goals are also coming under intensifying scrutiny in Washington, D.C. Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office that ends federal DEI programs and another that called for US agencies to “combat illegal private sector DEI actions.”
“My administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense,” Trump told business leaders and politicians last month during a virtual address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The National Center for Public Policy Research, the National Legal and Policy Center, and the Heritage Foundation have all submitted shareholder proposals seeking changes or deeper examinations of practices at several big banks.
