Jamie Dimon said US$20 billion in potential private-sector financing for Argentina “may not be necessary,” according to a Reuters interview with the JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive officer.
Dimon, speaking from Detroit on Wednesday, said JPMorgan remained ready to help Argentine President Javier Milei if necessary. “We have done special financing to Argentina in the past; if they need that, we’re all ears,” Dimon told Reuters.
Wall Street banks were coordinating with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on another pillar of a Trump administration rescue package meant to help its libertarian ally win Argentina’s congressional midterm election last month. After Milei emerged victorious by a wide margin, Bessent indicated that markets, and not US taxpayers, could fulfill Argentina’s financing needs next year.
Dimon himself met with Milei in Buenos Aires two weeks ago as the chief executive visited the bank’s growing operations in Argentina, where it’s been operating for more than a century.
The JPMorgan CEO’s remarks are the latest sign that Bessent’s lifeline to Milei was indeed just a “bridge” to Argentina’s election, as the US Treasury secretary first described it in September. The package came together after Milei’s party lost a key provincial vote seen as a bellwether for the national race, provoking weeks of market volatility.
Other aspects of the US lifeline included a separate US$20-billion currency swap line and the US Treasury intervened in Argentina’s market to buy pesos and prop up the beleaguered currency before the midterm vote. Milei also traveled to Washington to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House last month.
Milei’s party won about 41 percent of votes in the midterm race, comfortably defeating the main Peronist opposition and doubling the libertarian party’s presence in Congress. The results surpassed even optimistic expectations and sparked a market rally, including a record one-day gain for the country’s sovereign bonds.
The Argentine president is now returning to the US again. He’ll speak at a business forum in Miami and attend an event at Trump’s resort in Palm Beach on Thursday, then head to New York to speak with investors on Friday.
by Patrick Gillespie, Bloomberg
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