President Obama is meeting today with 15 heads of the world's biggest banks, including Bank of America Corp.'s Brian T. Moynihan and JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Jamie Dimon, White House officials said.
The state of the U.S. economy will be among the topics for the discussion, which will also include Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Lloyd C. Blankfein, Citigroup Inc.'s Michael Corbat, American International Group Inc.'s Robert Benmosche and Wells Fargo & Co.'s John Stumpf, according to an administration official, who requested anonymity because the meeting is private.
The CEOs arrived at the White House at about 10:30 a.m. Washington time and went inside without making any comments.
The group is in Washington for the Financial Services Forum's quarterly meeting. Josh Earnest, an Obama spokesman, declined to provide details about the agenda, and Laena Fallon, a spokeswoman for the Forum, declined to comment.
Obama is seeking to rebuild relationships with top business leaders as he struggles to create more jobs. Ties with bankers have been strained by new U.S. curbs on fees and trading, and Obama's Nov. 6 win of a second term in the White House helped drive the KBW Bank Index to its worst drop in five months the following day. The gauge has since rebounded and is up 11 percent this year.
This will be Blankfein's third meeting with Obama since the president was re-elected, according to one person. Blankfein, 58, is chairman of the Financial Services Forum and Moynihan, 53, is vice chairman. JPMorgan's Dimon, 57, runs the biggest U.S. bank by assets. It's based in New York along with Goldman Sachs, one of the biggest securities traders, while Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, has its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, is the biggest U.S. home lender.
"Over the past three years our businesses have created nearly 6.5 million new jobs, but we know we can help them create more," Obama, 51, said yesterday in announcing his 2014 budget plan. "Corporate profits are at all-time high, but we have to get wages and incomes rising as well."
Other members of the forum scheduled to attend are Morgan Stanley's James Gorman, Deutsche Bank AG's Jacques Brand, UBS AG's Sergio Ermotti, Bank of New York Mellon Corp.'s Gerald Hassell, State Street Corp.'s Jay Hooley, Abigail Johnson, president of Fidelity Investments, Metlife Inc.'s Steve Kandarian, Prudential Financial Inc.'s John Strangfeld and James Weddle of Edward Jones & Co.
