JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has joined the growing list of corporate executives who are touting the advantages of expanding their business footprints in Sun Belt states like Texas and Florida which in his words are “pro-America, optimistic, pro-business.”
“We love Florida, we’re growing in Florida left and right,” Dimon told Bloomberg News on Monday.
Dimon singled out Florida and Texas as states that “like business, they want you to come.”
“We now have more employees in Texas than in New York state,” Dimon said. “It shouldn’t have been that way but Texas loves you being there.”
JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the US, has expanded its presence in Florida, which has seen a large influx of migrants who have flocked from high-tax states such as New York, Illinois, and California.
“Small businesses, large companies, we got, I forgot how many total employees we have here,” Dimon told Bloomberg News.
“I’m on my way to Tampa, we’ve got major operations there, Orlando major operations, we’re opening branches, and so the mayor just joined us at a small business event we did here.”
Dimon added: “We’re very pro, pro-Florida.”
Dimon, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes to be around $1.7 billion, praised Florida’s political leadership.
“I think they’ve been great,” Dimon said.
“If you were running the state, you know, you should be thinking, ‘How can I make the state well off for my people?’” Dimon said.
“So Florida likes business. They want you to come.”
JPMorgan has opened more offices in burgeoning areas such as Miami and Jacksonville in recent years.
Dimon also hailed the Lone Star State, where JPMorgan Chase recently unveiled a new, state-of-the-art campus in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that the bank says accommodates some 6,500 jobs.
“Texas is the same way [in its pro-business attitude],” Dimon said.
“If I was some other states, I would be thinking about, ‘Why do people like going to these states?’”
He added: “It’s their taxes, it’s [that] they’re pro-business, they want a better life for their people.”
JPMorgan Chase boasts more than 200 branches in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The bank says it currently employs more than 6,500 employees in and around “Big D.”
Other finance titans have also bolstered their presence down South in response to migration patterns.
Ken Griffin, the hedge fund billionaire, announced he was relocating the headquarters of his market-making firm, Citadel, from crime-ridden Chicago to sunny Miami.
Goldman Sachs, the investment banking giant, also moved some of its traders to West Palm Beach — cementing South Florida’s reputation as “Wall Street South.”
Stephen Ross, the billionaire owner of the Miami Dolphins and Equinox gyms, told Bloomberg News recently that Florida’s “ease of living” makes it more attractive to career-oriented people from the Northeast.
“People are looking from the Northeast and relocating for jobs — not retirement — and companies are looking” for offices, Ross, the real estate developer who built the Hudson Yards project on Manhattan’s West Side, said.
Last year alone, more than 64,500 former residents of New York state moved to Florida — more than any year in history, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which tracks driver’s license statistics.