JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon pushed back on calls by the administration of United States President Donald Trump to cap credit card interest rates, claiming that if Congress follows through, it would result in an “economic disaster”.
Dimon made his comments on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
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Trump has proposed capping interest rates on credit cards at 10 percent for a year and has called on Congress to pass legislation to require it, but he has fallen short of outlining a concrete plan for how the cap would be implemented.
“It would remove credit from 80 percent of Americans, and that is their back-up credit,” Dimon said on Wednesday, as Trump renewed calls for the cap.
Banking industry trade group The Electronic Payments Coalition claims that if the interest rate cap is imposed, credit cards for those with credit scores below 740, which account for as much as 88 percent of credit card holders, could be closed or restricted.
Credit card companies would need to reduce rewards for those with FICO scores below 760, and would only need to restrict lending to those with credit scores below 600. Ten percent caps would save borrowers about $100bn a year, according to a 2025 report from Vanderbilt University.
“One of the biggest barriers to saving for a down payment has been surging credit card debt,” Trump said.
The comments mark a rare moment of bipartisan agreement in Washington.
An unlikely alliance
Progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren, a ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, said last week in an interview with CNBC that the president called her to discuss the possibility of working together on the proposal.
“Great, let’s get something done,” Warren said in the interview.
Trump’s comments echo an existing bill authored by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, which also caps interest rates at 10 percent, but would last for a longer period of time and sunset in 2031. The bill, however, has been sitting stagnant in Congress. It was most recently referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in early February 2025.
The interest rate cap push comes as an increasing number of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of the US economy. A Wall Street Journal poll released earlier this month found that 54 percent disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, a sentiment echoed by a recent CNN poll that found that 63 percent disapprove.
“I think we should test it,” Dimon said. “The government can do it, they should force all the banks to do it in two states, Vermont and Massachusetts [where Sanders and Warren represent], and see what happens.”
“People crying the most will not be the credit card companies. It will be the restaurants, retailers, travel companies, the schools, the municipalities, because people will miss their water payments, this payment and that payment,” Dimon said.
“President Trump is generating a lot of headlines from his credit card interest rate idea, but we’re still waiting for him to generate savings for real people. Last week, he said interest rates would be capped by January 20; this week, he says he needs help from Congress. I think it remains to be seen whether he’s serious about delivering on his promise,” Julie Margetta Morgan, president of economic think tank The Century Foundation, told Al Jazeera.
Political hurdles
Banking executives like Dimon and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser have said there are slim chances of this getting passed by Congress.
Beyond support from Trump and progressive Democrats, the bill will run into hurdles in Congress. Earlier this month, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said the proposal could have “negative secondary effects”.
“The president is asking Congress to pass legislation, so he’s not going to try to personally set credit rates. That makes it highly unlikely we’ll see a 10 percent cap put in place anytime soon,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. “It does give him an opportunity to point the finger at Congress if it doesn’t happen.”
On Wall Street, credit card company and bank stocks are fairly mixed on the heels of Dimon’s comments. Mastercard is down by 1.1 percent as is Visa by 1.7 percent. American Express, on the other hand, is up 1.9 percent since the market opened on Wednesday.
Bank stocks are trending upwards. Bank of America is up 0.5 percent, Wells Fargo by 0.1 percent and Citigroup by 1.2 percent in midday trading. JPMorgan Chase stock is about even on the day.
