JPMorgan, Amex sell stock
JPMORGAN Chase and American Express yesterday announced plans to sell $5.5bn (£3.34bn) of stock, to position themselves to quickly repay funds from the government’s bank bailout plan.
JPMorgan will sell $5bn of stock and American Express will sell $500m. JPMorgan’s offering, which is led by chief executive Jamie Dimon, will be priced by this morning.
Both New York-based companies were among the 19 US lenders to recently undergo the government “stress tests” of their ability to weather a deep recession, and were among the nine that regulators said did not need more capital.
The US Federal Reserve said yesterday the government will announce next week which of the 19 will be allowed to repay the government. JPMorgan took $25bn from the Treasury while American Express took $3.4bn.