A few thoughts in response to this. Jamie Dimon says no immediate return of share buybacks https://www.ft.com/content/1c6918fb-3aeb-461a-85b1-75b0d7ba1aa5 via @financialtimes

JPM Chase and its leadership are among the most widely admired of US financial institutions. The bank has been good to its shareholders, with years of large buybacks and steady dividend increases, the last one in the 3rd quarter, raising it from 80 to 90 cents a share.

What Dimon does not say in this article is that the 1st quarter dividend of 90 cents far exceeded its earnings of 78 cents a share. And this, on top of a 6 B buyback in the first quarter before the bank voluntarily suspended buybacks.

The question is not that this quarterly dividend - about $2.7 B- is a small percentage of the banks’ capital base. The question is why the bank is depleting its capital at all, given this terrible pandemic and mounting losses. It should be building its buffers, not eroding them.

Suspending the dividend would be a sign of wisdom, not weakness. It would say the bank understands the special responsibility it has to support the economy, to stay solvent and keep lending.

Banks have a special deal with the government others do not have- deposit insurance, access to Fed liquidity, interest bearing reserve accounts. But with those supports, come obligations.

If losses do not materialize once we emerge from this crisis, and the bank truly has excess capital, it can make a special distribution then, as Janet Yellen has suggested.

But failure to preserve and build capital now is unwise and makes the bank less resilient. That is against the long term interests of shareholders