JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon has pushed back against President Donald Trump’s call for a cap on credit card interest rates, arguing it would lead to an “economic disaster” if Congress follows through.
Dimon made the comments Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
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President Trump has proposed capping credit card interest rates at 10% annually and is asking Congress to pass legislation mandating it, but he has not yet outlined a concrete plan for how the cap would be implemented.
“That would take credit away from 80% of Americans, but it’s their backup credit,” Dimon said Wednesday as President Trump renewed his calls for the cap to be raised.
The Electronic Payments Federation, a banking industry trade group, argues that if interest rate caps are imposed, credit cards could be closed or restricted for up to 88% of credit card holders with credit scores below 740.
Credit card companies would be required to reduce rewards to customers with FICO scores below 760, and would be required to restrict lending only to customers with credit scores below 600. A 2025 report from Vanderbilt University says a 10 percent cap could save borrowers about $100 billion a year.
“One of the biggest obstacles to saving for a down payment is the skyrocketing amount of credit card debt,” President Trump said.
The comments mark a rare moment of bipartisan agreement in Washington.
an unlikely alliance
Progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren, ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, said in an interview with CNBC last week that the president called her to discuss the possibility of working together on the proposal.
“Great, let’s get something done,” Warren said in an interview.
President Trump’s comments echo existing legislation authored by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, which also sets a cap on interest rates at 10%, but would remain in place for a longer period of time and be repealed in 2031. However, the bill has stalled in Congress. Most recently, it was referred to the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee in early February 2025.
The interest rate cap hike comes as a growing number of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of the U.S. economy. A Wall Street Journal poll released earlier this month found 54% disapproving of President Trump’s handling of the economy, a sentiment echoed by a recent CNN poll that found 63% disapprove.
“I think it should be tested,” Dimon said. “The government can do that. They should force it on all banks in Vermont and Massachusetts (represented by Sanders and Warren) and see what happens.”
“It’s not the credit card companies that are crying the most; it’s the restaurants, the retailers, the travel companies, the schools, the municipalities, because people are going to miss their water bill, this bill, that bill,” Dimon said.
“President Trump has been making a lot of headlines with his ideas on credit card interest rates, but we’re still waiting for him to actually create savings for people. Last week, he said he would cap interest rates by January 20th, but this week he said he needs support from Congress. I think it remains to be seen whether President Trump is serious about making good on his promise,” Julie Margetta Morgan, president of the Century Foundation, an economic think tank, told Al Jazeera.
political hurdles
Bank executives, including Mr. Dimon and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, say the bill is unlikely to pass Congress.
Beyond support from President Trump and progressive Democrats, the bill will likely hit hurdles in Congress. Earlier this month, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said the proposal could have “negative fallout.”
“The president wants Congress to pass legislation and has no intention of personally trying to set a credit rate, so it’s highly unlikely that there will be a 10% cap anytime soon,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. “If that doesn’t happen, it gives him an opportunity to censure Congress.”
On Wall Street, stock prices for credit card companies and banks were quite mixed following Mr. Dimon’s comments. Mastercard fell 1.1% and Visa fell 1.7%. Meanwhile, American Express is up 1.9% since the market opened on Wednesday.
Bank stocks are on the rise. In intraday trading, Bank of America rose 0.5%, Wells Fargo rose 0.1% and Citigroup rose 1.2%. JPMorgan Chase’s stock price was almost evenly matched that day.
