Amid the Trump administration's push to roll back financial regulations, Wall Street bankers in the United States have again reached the peak of revenue and influence. Jamie Dimon, the chief executive officer (CEO) of JPMorgan Chase, was estimated to have earned about $770 million (about 1 trillion won) last year in total income from salary, bonuses, dividends, stock awards, and unrealized gains on his equity holdings. That far exceeds the traditional pay level for bank CEOs, and assessments said the shift in the regulatory environment has fundamentally changed the banking sector's revenue structure.
According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 5th (local time), CEO Dimon has presented a so-called "spaghetti chart" whenever meeting with regulators, politicians, and the media over the past 15 years. The document, which lays out the many laws and regulations JPMorgan must comply with in a complex flowchart, was used as a tool symbolically conveying the message that banks are bound by excessive regulation. Since the launch of the Trump administration, such arguments have translated into actual policy changes.
President Trump significantly eased the oversight framework introduced after the financial crisis, widening banks' scope of business activities. Regulators again allowed banks to conduct cryptocurrency transactions, and they halted enforcement of overseas anti-bribery rules. Capital regulations and supervisory standards for large banks also loosened, leading to assessments that the operating environment for banks has entered the most favorable phase in a generation.
Interest rate cuts and relaxed antitrust rules injected new life into the mergers and acquisitions market. A $100 billion (about 130 trillion won) takeover battle around major media corporations has reignited, and real estate lending—once flagged as a risk—stabilized after the spread of remote work. The stock market neared a record high, the bond market posted its best year since 2020, and gold and silver prices rose in tandem. This market backdrop sharply lifted investment banks' transaction revenue.
Shares of large banks rose an average of 29% last year, nearly double the gain of the U.S. stock market overall. Regional and smaller bank stocks also climbed, but the gap with big banks widened further. Investment bank Keefe Bruyette & Woods called it "a market environment favorable to all stakeholders."
Not only JPMorgan but also the chief executives of Citigroup and Goldman Sachs each received more than $100 million (about 13 billion won) in compensation. The CEO of U.S. financial firm Capital One earned more than $300 million (40 billion won), including revenue from stock sales during the year and bonuses tied to merger approvals. A large share of this compensation stemmed from unrealized gains on shares not yet sold, and actual receipt depends on remaining in the current post.
By contrast, rank-and-file employees' bonus amounts have not yet been finalized. But pay consulting firms projected a high likelihood of 5%–25% bonus increases depending on position.
Some raised concerns about whether the boom is sustainable. Glen Shore, a banking analyst at investment bank Evercore, noted that with massive capital flowing into new growth industries such as artificial intelligence (AI) and data centers, banks and asset managers could suffer significant losses if expectations falter.