JPMorgan Chase Stops the Financial Contagion

Dial P for Procurement

In 1907, J.P. Morgan was called back from a trip to help stop a series of bank runs on Wall Street. After watching a string of insolvent banks fail, he decided that the Trust Company of America was worth saving. He said, "This is the place to stop the trouble, then."

Over 100 years later, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon made a very similar decision about First Republic bank. He and treasury Secretary Janet Yellen came up with the idea of “stopping the contagion” affecting regional banks. When the auction was over and the smoke had cleared, JPMorgan Chase was the owner of First Republic - with a little help from their friends in the Federal government.

In this week’s episode of Dial P for Procurement, host Kelly Barner covers:

• The role that JPMorgan Chase plated in the rescue of First Republic and in the 2008 rescue of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual
• How JPMorgan Chase has become by far the largest bank in the country by skirting the regulations put in place to prevent just that
• The details of the auction that allowed JPMorgan Chase to acquire First Republic, and why knowing the rules and the decision criteria is the best way to win