Obama's Favorite Banker Headed Toward Global Oligarch Status

Jamie "Obama's Favorite Banker" Dimon, who was gifted Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual during the height of the first phase of the economic crisis, now wants to use the profits from those gifts to expand overseas.

Dimon has made expanding overseas a priority, NYT reports.

According to NYT:

With growth trends tilting toward the emerging markets and the prospect of tighter regulation from Washington, Mr. Dimon sees untapped opportunity. Analysts project that the growth rate of banking will be two to three times faster in emerging markets than the United States.

“We have got to invest locally, look at clients globally and look at new markets,” he said in the interview. “We are going to get the whole company behind it.”

Mr. Dimon, who spent the last two weeks hopscotching across China, India and Russia, had been laying the groundwork for international expansion for some time. A few years ago, he assigned two top lieutenants to scout out potential consumer banking opportunities overseas. He created a network of global advisers, including Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, and established a partnership with a buyout firm started by several former Citigroup colleagues to hunt for overseas acquisitions.

The global credit crisis postponed those plans. But at a meeting of the bank’s top executives on Sea Island, Ga., last summer, Mr. Dimon committed to spending billions of dollars in the coming years to bolster the bank’s overseas business. The bank plans to focus on a dozen or so emerging markets, Mr. Dimon said, including the so-called BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia, India and China, as well as places like Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and parts of Africa...the centerpiece of his immediate strategy is to create a global corporate bank that can serve multinational clients.

Dimon is a slick operator. he may truly become the first global oligarch. He'll capture the government regulatory bodies of the BRIC countries in no time. Lloyd Blankfein, eat your heart out.