Facebook’s Libra Is ‘Neat Idea That’ll Never Happen,’ Dimon Says

Count the chief of the biggest U.S. bank among doubters of Facebook Inc.’s effort to create a cryptocurrency

(Bloomberg) -- Count the chief of the biggest U.S. bank among doubters of Facebook Inc.’s effort to create a cryptocurrency.

“It was a neat idea that’ll never happen,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said Friday on a panel at a conference hosted by the Institute of International Finance in Washington.

Dimon said the idea wasn’t particularly unique and pointed to his own firm’s stablecoin, JPM Coin. The Libra Association, the group that will oversee the digital currency, took a blow last week when several key partners, including Mastercard Inc., Visa Inc. and EBay Inc., abandoned the project.

Read more: Libra loses Visa, Mastercard in cascade of exits

In a wide-ranging discussion, Dimon and Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman talked about their own firms’ technology efforts and the risks that come with those developments. JPMorgan is spending more than $11 billion this year on tech, while Gorman said his firm’s budget is $4 billion.

Gorman said the financial industry went from first choice to last choice for tech talent after the crisis, but has become more competitive for the top people.

Gorman said he’s concerned about hidden risks as more banking data moves to the cloud. Dimon issued a warning to customers: If they give a fintech access to their banking account and that firm is hacked, it could be on the hook for any missing money from the account, not JPMorgan.

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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