JPMorgan is betting on Italy. That is the message from Jamie Dimon, CEO of the largest bank in the United States, in an interview with the Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore.

Dimon also weighed in on the new wave of banking consolidation now underway on the Milan stock exchange, singling out the public exchange offer (OPAS, offerta pubblica di acquisto e scambio, a takeover bid combining cash and shares) that Intesa Sanpaolo has launched for MPS (Monte dei Paschi di Siena), as well as the expansion of UniCredit, which reportedly has three M&A options on the table. He said he would welcome more mergers among banks, not only Italian ones but across Europe.

The JPMorgan chief did not spare Europe his warnings, stressing the need for the EU to create a genuinely unified capital market. That, he explained, is the logic behind JPMorgan’s own Security and Resiliency Initiative, a $1.5 trillion, 10-year program launched in October 2025 to «facilitate, finance and invest in sectors vital to economic security,» both in the United States and across the West. (The bank expanded the initiative to Europe in 2026.)

If the continent were stronger, Dimon argued, citizens, businesses and the financial system as a whole would all stand to gain.

JPMorgan bets on Italy: roughly $90 billion deployed since January

On investments in Italy — a country that, in his words, «has its own resilience needs, mainly in infrastructure and energy security, as well as defense» — Dimon said that since the start of the year «JPMorgan has put to work roughly 90 billion in ’finance’ related to activities in Italy, focusing on the leading energy players (ENI, Enel, SNAM, Italgas), on infrastructure (FiberCop), and on the defense supply chain (Magnaghi Aerospace).»

That deployment falls under what could be described as the bazooka the banking giant fired with its Security and Resiliency Initiative, worth $1.5 trillion over ten years.

«We have been in Italy for 110 years, and our primary job here has always been to help the economy grow,» Dimon said of the country.

Trump’s tariffs: a wake-up call for Europe

Commenting on the tariffs announced by Donald Trump’s US administration, Dimon added that those duties had effectively served as «a wake-up call for Europe,» at a moment when «we need a more united Europe.»

The banker also invoked what Mario Draghi — the former Italian prime minister and former president of the European Central Bank — has said repeatedly, stressing that Europe should act on the findings of his report on competitiveness.

On the banks themselves, Dimon took aim at their size, which he considers far too small: «Europe’s institutions are small: the ten largest in the euro area together equal JPMorgan’s market cap. Not to mention the Chinese banks.»

More broadly, the head of JPMorgan spoke of the need for Europe to accelerate its Savings and Investments Union plan, also chiding European governments: «Governments should not decide what is best — the market should decide,» he said.

Editor’s note

This article was originally published in Italian on money.it by Laura Naka Antonelli on July 15, 2026 as «JPMorgan scommette 90 miliardi sull’Italia. Dimon rilancia anche sul futuro delle banche». It has been translated and adapted for an international audience by the Money.it International desk.