blackrock cover letter questions

Recently Active
Top Discussions
Best Content

By Industry

Investment Banking
Private Equity
Hedge Funds
Real Estate
Venture Capital
Asset Management
Equity Research
Investing, Markets Forum
Business School
Fashion Advice
Job Search Advice Forum JOB

BlackRock Virtual Cover Letter Hireview

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Share via Email

Has anyone applied to BlackRock to be a full-time analyst and received a request to submit a virtual cover letter? I'm not sure what to expect so if anyone has completed it and could tell me what questions were on it that would be great! I'm not sure whether to expect to submit one long story about my background or have to answer specific questions.

BlackRock Video Interview Questions

They ask the same basic, behavioral questions for each video interview. Only two questions are asked, with 30 seconds to prepare and 1 minute 30 sec to answer the question. Questions vary depending on the department, but examples include:

Why did you choose your major and how do you believe it will help you in your professional career?
Why would you be good for the role?
Why do you think you're a good fit for BlackRock and why did you decide to apply to your division of preference?
What has been your favorite course at school and why?
How would you value the risk of 100 Apple shares?
What differentiates BlackRock?

More answers to frequent questions can be found here.

How to Prepare for Blackrock Video Interview

Prepare answers to the sample questions above in advance, and practice in front of a webcam. It takes getting used to the online format, so you want to be prepared! Also make sure to keep your practiced answers under the 1:30 time limit. Review your resume for things you want to highlight, and make sure you’re ready for curveball questions not on the list above.

Make sure you’re dressed in a suit or business professional (at least from the waist up). Ensure you’re in a well-lit and quiet area , with minimal background distractions.

Blackrock Hireview General FAQs

These are webcam interviews , so make sure your camera and microphone works. Usually everyone has to do one . Most receive an email a few minutes after submitting their applications, and they ask for different virtual cover letters for each of your choices in BlackRock. Typically they give a deadline of 3 days , but many users have done it after the deadline without any issues.

A follow-up email, if you haven’t completed the assessment, usually consists of this:

"This is a friendly reminder that you have been selected to move forward in the recruitment process with BlackRock. The next step of the process will consist of a short, automated video interview to allow us to get to know you a little better and provide you with an opportunity to highlight your talent and abilities.”

Hey, I'd also like to find out about this. Also, is there a deadline for completion of the BlackRock virtual cover letter?

It is well specified in the letter: within 3 days!

I replied to mine 6 days late and the application went through without problems. I know many people who also submitted it the cover letter late and have had no problems. Thats being said, do it as soon as you can.

After the video cover letter is completed, how long does it take for BlackRock to get back to applicants for the next steps?

I mean I completed the virtual cover letter in early August and never heard back so assuming they just ghost reject people lol

Do you guys know if everyone who applies gets asked to complete the virtual cover letter? Or do some get cut before that round?

I'm pretty sure everyone has to do one. I recieved an email almost seconds after submitting my application. They ask for a virtual cover letter from both your choices. Has anyone done the virtual cover letter yet, if so could they tell say how it was and what it entails.

The deadline is in three days, did you manage to do it. How was it? What was in it as well?

Would also like to know what this entails if anyone has gone through it!

People say economic theories don't apply too well to real-life scenarios... But I feel like I'm sensing the free-rider problem or information asymmetry or Nash equilibrium or something here...

you are now one of them. plz tell us

Can someone please tell us whats on it?

Bump- Anyone do this and can comment?

bump, also interested

You're all overthinking it, they're basic questions like why did you pick your major, why would you be good for the role, etc. I applied to two positions, both asked the same exact questions. Not sure if they mix up the questions they send to candidates, but they're behavioral. You have 30 seconds to do a practice and then a minute thirty to answer. I applied FT and already did virtual interview, it says in the email that they make all candidates do it. Also, BlackRock is doing virtual first-round interviews. Hope that helps

Is it a webcam interview?? Or you just need to type your answers?

Just did it and would agree. Sort of rattled when I did it since it was my first HireVue interview - would highly recommend practicing/being comfortable looking at the webcam.

what kind of questions did they ask? Do you speak or type?

Same, applied to multiple roles in the past. Questions are basic... Why your major. Why Blackrock. Basic technical questions such as "How would you quantify the risk of holding XYZ stock" etc.

Did any of you apply to Investments? I applied on 8/3 for full-time through an employee referral but my confirmation email said nothing about a virtual cover letter and I haven't heard anything since then.

jdfhg: Did any of you apply to Investments? I applied on 8/3 for full-time through an employee referral but my confirmation email said nothing about a virtual cover letter and I haven't heard anything since then.

I applied to quantitative investment and I was asked for a virtual cover letter

Investments is no longer an option on their app. I'm assuming that means that they'll down with recruiting for that division?

Could you share a little about your virtual cover letter questions? And did you receive further information? Thx!

I applied to investments and had to submit a virtual cover letter.

Hi, I am applying to BlackRock this year, and also received a virtual cover letter, do you mind sharing your experiences, and types of questions being asked? Thanks so much!

Same here. I also applied through a referral but never received any virtual cover letter thing. Which team do you applied to?

I've spoken to recruiters and people who have applied, it sounded like they've hired their Investments team from their summer analyst group.

If I recall correctly they give you approx. 2 minutes to answer each question with 1:30 min to read and prepare (also comes with a video asking the same question beforehand and practice rounds). Questions I got: 1. Why do you think you're a good fit for BlackRock and why did you decide to apply to your division of preference (something along those lines)? 2. Why did you choose your major and how do you believe it will help you in your professional career? Pretty straightforward.

Btw, anyone know when we'll hear back?

Are there only 2 questions? Thanks

Yeah, two questions. Very short interview. Good luck.

Exact Questions were (2 minutes to respond to each):

Why did you choose to apply to BlackRock and this specific business?
Please explain how you chose your academic area of study and how you will use it in your career.

You're right. I had several interviews that week so I forgot the specifics...Thanks for clarifying.

I applied to FMA and Client Business about 2 weeks ago. Havent heard back. Anyone heard back yet?

Applied to the same groups and haven't heard back yet.

Still haven't heard back either and its been 2+ weeks

Bump, any updates anyone?

Now I'm the newest to this thread who has this virtual interview due in 3 days :/

The deadline for mine is tomorrow :'(

Anyone know when they start interviewing? Or did they already start?

Anyone hear anything for FMA?

Nothing yet, finished my virtual cover letter a week ago..

Just finished my virtual cover letter, the questions are exactly the same as @FreedStones said

Anything new?

I did the virtual cover letter too. The questions are about: 1) Why this field of profession? 2) Why BlackRock? 3) Why the major you studied? 4) How you bring your skills to the firm? Or the combination of two of them.

Tips: I heard from the recruiter at a campus event that you don't need to repeat the question, because it's a waste of time. I did repeat the question though... before I heard this. Yes, I'm dumb dumb :)

Still no response.. I expect we'll start hearing back in mid october

Last year, I applied mid September, got interview invite mid November and got rejected in ... March

wow that's super slow

one of my classmates got an invitation for recorded interview last week. don't know if that's the first round

I think every applicant gets one

Lucky, I've only gotten the virtual cover letter.

Careful, if you apply outside the UK, second question is in the language of the office you are applying to. That was not a nice surprise...

Ok so I completed my virtual cover letter this Thursday night, and got this Friday night:

"This is a friendly reminder that you have been selected to move forward in the recruitment process with BlackRock. The next step of the process will consist of a short, automated video interview to allow us to get to know you a little better and provide you with an opportunity to highlight your talent and abilities."

Do they send this to everyone who applied?

yiyooo: Ok so I completed my virtual cover letter this Thursday night, and got this Friday night: "This is a friendly reminder that you have been selected to move forward in the recruitment process with BlackRock . The next step of the process will consist of a short, automated video interview to allow us to get to know you a little better and provide you with an opportunity to highlight your talent and abilities." Do they send this to everyone who applied?

I thought the Virtual Cover Letter = short, automated video interview?

Yeah that's what I thought too but I got this after I submitted the virtual cover letter...

I haven't heard anything after finishing my cover letter (3 weeks ago)..so I guess I'm not selected to move forward?

@yiyooo which office/position did you apply to?

SF & client businesses

Some of my classmates received the same thing. The questions are exactly the same. very confused

anyone heard back from them after completing virtual cover letter? its been 2 weeks I guess I didnt get through :/

I also applied weeks ago and have not heard anything. I applied to NY Client Business

I have never shit the bed harder in life than I did on that virtual cover letter.

All they ask you is why Blackstone, why the position you applied for, why you would be a good fit etc. I'm just a rookie moron and figured I would wing a few behavioral questions with no preliminary research. Don't be like me.

Lol "why Blackstone "? At least get the company name right dude haha

+1 Silver Banana. Fuck.

You are so funny! I like it.

I did it two days ago. I was taken back because I wasn't expecting to be recorded through video on my answers, but essentially that's what it is. Standard behavioral questions. For example, I applied for the multi-asset trading desk as an SA , and they asked: "Why did you choose your major"? And "How will that impact your career"? They give you about 1min 30 seconds to record your answers. They also give you about a 1 min to prepare before it starts recording. For my role, there were only two questions asked, both of which was recorded. If you apply to multi positions you'll have to record a virtual cover letter for both positions.

Side Note: dress in a suit as they expect you to look professional....or at least from the waste up

How does the timer work? Do you have to fill up the entire 1min 30s time? Or is there a button to stop recording if you have fully answered the question before the timer is up?

Do you have to use up the full minutes of time? Or can you stop the recording early if you have fully answered the question?

You can stop it early. There's a button that allows you to stop recording.

Ok so who has completed the Virtual Cover letter and still not heard back from BlackRock?

I was told interviews would be held late October, early November by a recruiter. I applied for a FI summer analyst position, so I'm not sure about FT

Got the interview yesterday. They take place the 20th for first round and 21st the second round

Congrats! First and second rounds are back-to-back?

Mine is part of their founders scholars program. But yeah they are back to back

Anyone heard back from their FT FMA after completing their cover letter?

I haven't. I think the only people who have heard back are those who applied with BFS

J-look94: I haven't. I think the only people who have heard back are those who applied with BFS

Haven't heard back either. Submitted mine on 2nd October. What did you apply for?

hii, It's mentioned in Job description of Analyst program as "Analyst program is a two year program" what does it actually mean?

For all interested - its literally a 3 question virtual cover letter in which you talk about your major selection, pathway to applying, and why BlackRock is a good fit for you. 30 seconds to "prep" and 2 minutes to respond. Don't sweat.

bump. Anyone heard back regarding the virtual cover letter for the analyst program yet?

No apparently they start for FT in mid-November

Has anyone interviewed with the Alternative Investments group?

Any update for the ones who applied FT ?

Haven't heard anything

Has anyone applied for two divisions? I will have to do the virtual cover letter and I don't know if I have to talk about both of them when answering "why this division". Or they ask for 2 CL? tks

i believe you must do two virtual cover letters.

I applied to two divisions. Long story short I slipped up and didn't submit a video for either. Even though I didn't send in a video, financial modelling reached out with a follow-up assessment. No more developments as of yet, surprised the lack of videos slipped through the cracks. Regardless, a takeaway is that the two divisions aren't going to compare your applications, they seem pretty separate.

Lucky you! Thanks!

This year the questions are: Why BlackRock and this position? and (the one which is different) What differentiates BlackRock?

Camba Also, you have a lot of time after they give you the question to prepare, but since you know the questions you shouldn't need it. You have 1 minute 30 to answer, which is very short. I would just do plenty of research on BlackRock and the position. Practice in front of the camera (I just used photobooth). Hirevue tracks your eye movement, word selection, and timbre of your voice. You can have notes on your screen and its better to go with an outline than read, or memorize. I passed it and had a first round interview.

Hope this helps!

Hi, thanks for your sharing. Did you apply for the London office or other areas? Were you required to choose the position in the application form or only within the cover letter stage？Is online testing involved in the process?

Many thanks.

Did anybody get past the first round interviews yet?

I just did the video Cover Letter and the first question I got was : Why did you choose to apply to BlackRock and this specific business? which, I've seen up here before, but my second was asking: How does BlackRock differentiate itself?

Just thought I would share. It was a little awkward for me because I basically already answered the second question in the first question.

How did you even answer those questions

Which role and location did you apply for? Analyst programme? Thanks

Any updates for anyone? I did my cover letter a couple weeks ago and was just asked to answer a couple more questions for them on hirevue.

Have you answered the questions yet? what are they?

Haven't yet. Probably gonna do some prep today and do them tomorrow before it's due at midnight.

Hi everyone! I completed the first part of the application for FMA and equities investments in LDN and Scotland and now have to do the virtual cover letter. Does any of you know about the questions they asked? Thank you!!!

Hi there, completed the virtual cover letter today and the questions are as before:

1) Why did you choose to apply to BlackRock and this specific business?

2) What differentiates BlackRock?

Hi, did you apply for the graduate analyst role in LDN? Thanks

Yeah I did the cover letter and it was pretty straight forward. Why did you choose to apply to BlackRock and this specific business. What differentiates BlackRock.

I just did mine a few days ago, anybody that has done it, when do you typically hear back. I was talking to my boss from when I interned there for my second co-op, and she said she wasn't sure but probably like 2 weeks.

i have done it since september, all i received (on 27 octobeR) was an invite to complete contextual survey. im an int'l graduate student so dont know what it meant (if my application was successful or not)

I'm in the same situation, has anyone else heard back from them after the contextual survey?

I submitted the virtual interview on 10/4 and finally yesterday I got an email saying "Thank you for submitting your application to the position at BlackRock . We are currently reviewing your application and we will be in contact with you shortly. "

Is this a glitch?

I didn't get that. HR directly e-mailed me.

i haven't got it yet

when did you graduate?

Did any international student receive the "rare contextual survey"? I received an invitation to that, but the email also included "... survey only open to applicants who completed their secondary school education in the UK". I did not study in the UK, so I suppose I should ignore this survey? Yet I was invited.

Not sure what to do. Hopefully my decision won't affect my chances of any further progress.

i asked them and they said its not important and you can ignore it.

its only for home students. what role did you apply and when did you graduate?

Has anyone been selected for the first round? I have been selected for trading SA . Have 2x30 min interview in one week

I recently applied for the Portfolio Analyst Program at New York. I got an email to complete the hirevue assessment within 3 days. As I am unable to complete within the given time frame, I emailed the university relations team and then I got an automated email mentioning that they don't give an extension. Can the hirevue assessment be completed after 3 days?

Can anyone tell me which groups are the most over saturated with applications? FMA? PAG? Equities?

I just wanna know which groups to avoid when applying this summer.

Adivce about BlackRock Virtual Cover Letter Invitation - Hireview ( Originally Posted: 02/11/2018 )

Hi fellows, I just got an invitation to take a virtual cover letter interview from BlackRock. Can you please advice and share your experience? What should I expect and what are the do's and don't's that I should be careful about?

snk.nazir, hey, look at the bright side, at least you didn't get a ton of monkey shit thrown at you...here is my best guess on threads that might be helpful:

BlackRock Virtual Cover Letter Hireview story about my background or have to answer specific questions. BlackRock Virtual Cover Letter Hireview ... different virtual cover letters for each of your choices in BlackRock . Typically they give a deadline of ... a virtual cover letter ? I'm not sure what to expect so
BlackRock virtual interview/cover letter Has anyone done this yet for summer analyst positions? Any insight or advice would be appreciated....... ...
Blackrock Virtual Cover Letter Deadline Missed . ...
Goldman Sachs Virtual Insight Series href=" https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/investment-banking-resume-templa… CV Template</a></li><li><a href=" https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/a - cover-letter ... -template-for-investment-banking">Investment Banking Cover Letter Sample</a></li><li><a ... Being that I was ineligible for all diversity events, I registered for the Goldman Sachs Virtual
BlackRock Cover letter York. I was wondering if anyone knew who I should address my cover letter to. On LinkedIn, I found a VP ... increase the odds of landing an interview , even if it's a little. BlackRock ... Right now I am looking to apply for a 2016 Summer Analyst internship in equities at BlackRock ...
Broke a cardinal rule in cover letter, should I admit to it?- Interview in a few hours missed this and have invited me to interview (which I am ecstatic about ) but I beleive that anyone who ... So I broke the cardinal rule of cover letters ie sending a copy and paste of a letter I had ... / McKinsey). The problem is that while I did adjust the cover letter to match investment banking I left out ...
Resume and cover letter- a reviewers perspective I just read through a stack of cover letters and resumes to prepare for a summer intern interview ... table. Every cover page and resume looks the same. I skim read the cover letter looking for anything that ... Average time spent reading each letter and resume- about 45 seconds. On the resume section, I mainly look ...
More suggestions...

If we're lucky, the following users may have something to say: nelobynature Joe_Bananas totan.ftu2

Hope that helps.

bump, someone take one for the team and tell us the questions

has anyone heard back since the virtual cover letter?

what were your virtual cover letter questions? if you dont mind me asking.

Hi, do u mind pm me the questions for BlackRock?

Does anyone know if the hirevue questions this year is the same as last year?

Took the hirevue, can confirm questions were same as last year

Just finished the hirevue today. There are two questions totally. For each question, candidate is allowed to take 5 mins to preprare and 1min30s to answer the question. My questions were 1) Why did you apply to BlackRock and the specific business? 2) What made BlackRock differentiate from other firms?

Thanks for sharing!! Just wondering did you apply for 2019 analyst position?

I applied ft 2019 FT analyst position and the questions were: Why BlackRock and the specific business? What differentiates Blackrock from other firms? Also, lol, I applied to two positions, and the questions were the EXACT same. (You still do it twice seperately) So it was awkward explaining why for one position, and then completely changing my answer to fit the 2nd specific business.

Does anyone have any idea of what their recruiting timeline looks like or when we'll begin to hear back post virtual cover letter?

Anyone apply and not receive a cover letter request instantly lol

has anyone heard back yet?

I had two HireVues very recently. My two questions were "Why BlackRock, why [x division]" and "How does BlackRock differentiate itself from its competitors"

What's your role for application?

Have you heard back after the hirevues yet tho?

I am going to complete now. Wish me luck. Will report back!

I applied for the Equities and ETF & Index Investing. I did not prepare enough. I get stressed out when I prepare too much so I tried to speak naturally. Good choice? Depends, I could have had a much better answer for sure but I wanted to speak naturally instead.

Well, anyways GL to you all and see you around.

Questions for both VCLs: 1. Why did you choose to apply to Blackrock and to this specific industry and 2. How does Blackrock differentiate itself.

More importantly - does anyone know if BR is even hiring for FT in anything?

Yeah, they are hiring for full time positions from what I've heard. Has anybody heard back for sa 2019 yet?

Any update for FT?

anyone get any updates?? (for US)

Any update for summer analyst? A friend on the east coast got 1st round interview for ETF at New York office

When did they contact him informing him about the first round interview? I applied but I haven't heard back yet, someone told me to give it two more weeks

He heard from BR this Monday. I applied as well and haven't heard back either.

Has anyone heard back about final rounds for ETF interviews yet?

Has anyone else heard back from Aladdin Client Service?

Hey guys! I know it's pretty early but Does anyone know the virtual cover letter questions for this year? Thank you in advance!!!!

When I completed the HireVue, I got 1) why Blackrock/why this division? and 2) tell me about a recent story in the news and how it relates to Blackrock.

might be worded slightly differently, been a couple weeks

Just finished mine today, the questions are exactly the same as what you have mentioned!

I just applied to the full-time analyst program but I did not receive a virtual cover letter, and my application portal does not provide me a link - do you get an automatic email immediately?

Similar issue here. I applied to 2 positions and received one VCL link but not the other. I'll email them about it and see what they say.

Did you end up getting the links?

ya got the links it just showed up on my portal eventually

does anyone keep getting the “oh you didn’t complete your video assessment we’ve decided to give you 48 hours to re-submit” lmaoooo

ahaha yea bruh I'm with u man

the struggle is real

Hi. Can you please share the kind of questions you were asked during the virtual cover letter stage? Thanks in advance.

Anyone have the 2020 questions? Thanks

Hey all, I recently gave VCL for Portfolio Analyst 2021 position at Tokyo.

Questions were pretty straightforward:

1. Why blackrock and this specific position?

2. Tell me about any recent news and how it relates to blackrock?

I gave interview 3 days before and still didn't got any reply, any idea when will they reply generally?

Hey, did you hear back recently?

Et corrupti fugit consequatur repudiandae ab non doloremque sint. Qui omnis dolores tempore maiores illum. Est repellendus occaecati quae vero maxime blanditiis. Ullam voluptas atque saepe reprehenderit.

Fugit velit enim molestiae in perspiciatis cupiditate. Laborum dolores aut sunt quibusdam ducimus vitae ut. Et nulla voluptatum dolor sint totam consectetur ea ducimus.

Assumenda autem qui modi sapiente doloribus dolor. Ipsum sed eum id.

Quod laboriosam ipsum quia et expedita et ipsam unde. Aliquam facilis quaerat id assumenda. Voluptatem repellendus officiis omnis itaque qui optio.

See All Comments - 100% Free

WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)

or Unlock with your social account...

Voluptatem omnis et ut eveniet soluta consequuntur. Corporis tempora laudantium cum fugit. Id omnis culpa nemo dolor odit. Fugiat eum ipsa dolorem vel sed.

Qui unde incidunt perspiciatis unde consequatur. Rem quae fuga est doloribus tenetur nihil. Voluptatum in amet tempora commodi ea quos. Quaerat officiis magnam beatae. Quas quia id exercitationem dolores cupiditate perferendis.

Sit animi sint consequatur voluptatem alias temporibus nihil voluptas. Beatae molestiae ducimus dolorem nihil error rerum et.

Repellat minima minima dicta soluta consequatur velit incidunt rerum. Minus voluptatibus quasi molestias ut eligendi pariatur. Aut molestiae dolorem illo et porro voluptas ea ducimus.

Similique provident fugiat voluptas veritatis. Explicabo non ea deleniti architecto. Rem rerum autem ad corrupti sint. Possimus laudantium amet sequi corporis quia blanditiis dignissimos. Quia adipisci voluptatum magnam at accusantium officiis ea.

Ea culpa esse corporis at non itaque delectus corrupti. Enim ut a deleniti labore. Quia rerum enim et error ut.

Aspernatur ea deleniti iste aspernatur quos tempora eius dolor. Veritatis quos ut distinctio eius cupiditate blanditiis. Id laborum fuga quis id maxime voluptatem. Consequatur esse aut a ipsa quia qui non. Voluptatem quidem minus beatae tempora est ducimus. Et ex asperiores suscipit et voluptas. Rerum ut sunt cum possimus ut corporis.

Sunt nisi et qui consectetur autem. Qui sunt dolorem sed praesentium dolorum. Est aut voluptates aut fugit ratione sunt sed. Dolorem quibusdam tempore rerum nesciunt eaque earum saepe.

Sunt aliquid et mollitia necessitatibus animi. Consequuntur sapiente recusandae nulla aliquid mollitia nam sed perspiciatis.

Quia omnis accusantium est in dolor explicabo id. Ut mollitia quo sapiente expedita nesciunt quis. Id occaecati facilis voluptatem sed assumenda laborum veritatis. Ipsa suscipit necessitatibus expedita quia veritatis assumenda optio.

A at minus quia. Sint nihil molestiae quaerat ut ut esse. Id consectetur aut voluptatum sapiente consequatur tempore. Et voluptatibus est dignissimos quibusdam quo. Repudiandae ullam quam vel qui dignissimos rerum hic.

Vero quo sit accusantium iure placeat ex ipsa. Nobis nemo dolore sed ea repudiandae. Non reiciendis eum corrupti perspiciatis saepe harum ullam.

Voluptate sit aut impedit ducimus sit quis alias recusandae. Aut nobis sunt officiis iure alias. Non illum et et aut. Ab blanditiis dolor enim.

Officia eius nesciunt magnam quae asperiores qui. Veritatis temporibus iste dolorum quidem. Tempora nemo aperiam doloribus temporibus unde dolorem.

Omnis eum aut qui perspiciatis quae voluptatibus. Et aspernatur quasi consequatur et eum nemo alias. Quia ipsum et voluptatem ab nihil. Doloribus eos molestiae aspernatur dolores animi iure. Architecto ipsam et ea in est. Qui unde sit ea consequuntur.

Deserunt quo sequi veniam odio. Dolores qui repudiandae numquam sunt. Atque voluptas illum qui eum repudiandae tenetur. Assumenda ipsam ipsa praesentium labore. Ducimus illum aliquam ad enim libero aut.

Ab et ut rem dolore repudiandae dolores aliquid. Ut autem consequuntur iusto illum maiores. Deleniti neque dolores dolor ex. Illum doloribus eligendi eius quia repellat placeat. Molestias iusto placeat sed repellat sit a sit tempora.

Modi cumque iure dignissimos dolores. Fugit dolor dignissimos recusandae beatae dicta suscipit sequi. Qui sed non nesciunt modi voluptatem sunt beatae.

Autem illum dolor ut sed tempora commodi veritatis. Deserunt labore suscipit a earum eligendi dolorem earum.

Sed illo nihil rerum et tenetur amet. Eos dignissimos mollitia laudantium nostrum soluta deleniti dicta. Vero doloribus voluptates odio corporis. Quia earum temporibus accusamus sit neque a voluptas odit. Ut sint autem voluptates tenetur magni iure exercitationem et.

Iste magnam sit ea odit consequatur vel id exercitationem. Facilis minus quidem quia rem sint. Provident consequatur id dolor voluptatem ullam. Facere corporis omnis cum est consequatur nihil odio. Sequi quibusdam quidem enim corporis vitae sapiente aut earum.

Want to Vote on this Content?! No WSO Credits?

Already a member? Login

Why the Interviewer Asks This Question

What you need to know, experienced example.

Community Answers

This question serves several purposes. It aims to get you to relax while speaking about a subject you are an expert on - yourself. It allows you to deliver your elevator pitch, explaining in a brief bio how your professional journey led you to their doors. It also serves as a reference point for when you are answering your questions most sincerely, as opposed to giving an interview performance and responding according to what you assume they are looking to hear. So, answer this and all the following questions as sincerely as possible. Or, as BlackRock advises, "Be yourself. Be valued for it."

BlackRock uses an algorithmic on-demand interview assessment company called HireVue to capture what they call your virtual cover letter. "The virtual cover letter is a short Q&A video recording that you must submit as part of the application process. We'll provide you with two questions to record your answers to. You'll then have three minutes to prepare and 90 seconds to answer each question. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes. You must complete both questions in a single sitting within 72 hours of submitting your online application to be considered. We review this virtual cover letter instead of a written cover letter."

In most instances, when you enter into the virtual cover letter or on-demand interview, you'll be allowed roughly 20-30 seconds per question to formulate your response and up to three minutes to record your answer. You get only one opportunity to record your answers. While some questions take longer to answer than others, do your best to take only as much time as you need. Be as brief as possible. On their website, HireVue offers the following advice: "Virtual interviewing is similar to the video calls many of us have been using. Since you can interview from anywhere, make sure it's somewhere you're comfortable. Pick a spot free from distractions and noise. Ensure you've got the strongest Wi-Fi signal possible. And don't forget to check your lighting. Make sure it's in front of you. Lighting from behind makes it hard to see you. Just be natural! Get comfortable and be confident in yourself." Here is some more helpful advice from HireVue's website: "You will use a computer, tablet, or mobile device to answer questions created by the company for the position you are applying for. Your answers are recorded for a representative at their company to evaluate. Because HireVue is not directly involved in the hiring process, the company you applied to will follow up with you about their hiring decision or any next steps after you complete your interview."

"As a child, my parents frequently traveled for work, and it seemed like they were both frequently stretched thin. So at ten years old, I started managing their finances, from paying bills to dedicating accounts to different functions. I have always been good with finances and money. It is a responsibility my parents trusted me with from an early age. I take that responsibility very seriously and take that trust seriously as well. So, to this day, when someone trusts me with their assets and capital, I feel honored and take pride in earning and retaining their trust."

Anonymous Answer

Jaymie's Feedback

Next Question

BlackRock HireVue Interview Questions & Answers

Below is a list of our BlackRock, Inc. interview questions. Click on any interview question to view our answer advice and answer examples. You may view six answer examples before our paywall loads. Afterwards, you'll be asked to upgrade to view the rest of our answers.

Table of Contents

1. Accomplishment Questions
2. Adaptability Questions
3. Behavioral Questions
4. Career Goals Questions
5. Communication Questions
6. Compatibility Questions
7. Competency Questions
8. Creative Thinking Questions
9. Customer Service Questions
10. Diligence Questions
11. Diversity Questions
12. Education Questions
13. EQ Questions
14. Leadership Questions
15. Salary Questions
16. Teamwork Questions
17. Tough Questions

Accomplishment

1. Tell me about yourself.

Written by Kevin Downey on May 8th, 2023

Written by Kevin Downey on May 12th, 2023

Anonymous Interview Answers with Professional Feedback

View This Question and Answers

Adaptability

2. Geographically, where would you like your career to take you?

Interviewers ask this question to determine how familiar you are with the expectations of this role and their company, as well as your goals and what motivates you in your career. If you are willing to go anywhere the company needs you to, with the hope of advancing more quickly and rising through the ranks, this will offer insights into your goals as a professional. If you are hoping to ground yourself in one location and are looking for a fruitful career while remaining close to friends and family, this holds merit as well. Both can assure the employer you are interested in long-term gainful employment. However, you should be honest and committed, regardless of your approach. Most importantly, familiarize yourself with the value propositions and recruiting advertisements offered on their website before your interview.

BlackRock advertises on its website, "Our presence is worldwide. We are a global investment management firm that has grown to include more than 85 offices in over 35 countries, across six continents. As we expand our capabilities globally, BlackRock continues to focus locally. Through partnership with over 16,000 colleagues, we help people from all walks of life reach their investment goals."

Allow some time before the interview's start time to enter the virtual interview room and check that the webcam, sound, and lighting are suitable before it begins. Close any unnecessary windows or applications that may notify you and distract you on your device during your interview. Have a glass of water ready next to you if you need it during the interview. Ensure you are in a quiet room or area, well-lit and free of distractions. Additionally, HireVue advises candidates to "wear exactly what you would for a traditional face-to-face interview. This can mean something different for every company and position, so we recommend picking your outfit based on the role you are interviewing for. Think about it this way: if you're applying to a non-customer-facing role, it will probably have a more casual dress code, and a nice, clean top, free of excess writing, will probably do for your interview! Alternatively, if you're applying for a role where you'd typically wear a suit and tie every day, we recommend you do the same for your interview. It may feel a little different to put on your Sunday best for your kitchen table, but hey, at least you won't have to get it pressed again after this, right?"

"I would love to go wherever my career with BlackRock could take me. However, if given the opportunity, I would love to end up in Seattle, Washington."

3. How do you promote your own well-being?

This question uses keywords from their website page, 'well-being,' to test how thoroughly you've explored their company. As part of their recruiting efforts, BlackRock advertises to their candidates that they "understand emotional resilience is key to in your life and at work. Our emotional well-being resources can help you navigate all kinds of situations. We care about your physical, emotional, and financial well-being. To help you stay energized, engaged, and inspired, we offer support for working parents and Flexible Time Off so you can relax, recharge and be there for the people you care about." This question also aims to assess how emotionally balanced you are, which could serve as an indicator of your likelihood of burning out on the job, leading to poor performance and contributing to attrition. Share how you prioritize your physical, emotional, and financial well-being, and explain that you are interested in finding long-term, gainful employment with them.

Written by Kevin Downey on May 9th, 2023

On HireVue's website, candidates are offered the following advice: "Maximize your comfort level and share your experiences and skills as naturally as possible. This is an opportunity to share your story as a candidate. All candidates applying to a position will receive the same set of questions, selected by the hiring company. Additionally, HireVue takes measures to prevent candidates from seeing these interview questions before they are taking an interview. These measures ensure that each candidate has the same amount of time to review the questions, and prepare their responses, giving all candidates the same interview experience and an equal shot at putting their best foot forward."

The algorithm will analyze your verbal and nonverbal cues, such as placing stress or emphasis on certain words, stuttering, or taking long pauses. Try to be mindful of your facial expressions. When concentrating, avoid furrowing your eyebrows, as it could be misinterpreted by the algorithm. If you are unsure how to answer, avoid placing your hands on your neck, folding your arms, or slouching. Maintain eye contact with the camera when possible, and maintain good posture.

"I do so by listening to myself. It may sound cliche, but there is a balance you have to strike with your mind, body, and spirit. And if you start to feel off balance in any way, it's time to listen. If this happens, I'll do myself some form of kindness that addresses all three, like go for a bike ride in the forest or treat myself to sushi. I just listen to myself and treat myself well. As a result, I would say that I am generally a pretty well-rounded individual."

Career Goals

4. How can we motivate you?

This question aims to assess how career-focused you are and is a test of your professional worth. How you answer could reveal whether you look at your career through a big-picture lens or focus on more immediate, short-term goals. When sharing what motivates you and supports your career satisfaction, focus on your career goals and the timeline for reaching them rather than on financial rewards. Your merits will be rewarded accordingly, and you can save the salary talk for a more appropriate time.

In a blog on their website, they advise that you should "be open about your goals and where you see your career going. A good manager would want to co-own the process with you. Fostering open communication with your manager creates space to have that frank discussion. Candor is the biggest thing I think of when it comes to discussing and looking at internal mobility."

You can expect several career-oriented questions throughout your interview. Therefore, it is important to remain focused and ensure your responses are consistent. HireVue's assessment models will evaluate you for your consistency from one question to the next. Not only do you want to ensure your answers are consistent throughout your interview, but your performance as well. They even advertise on their website that they "Ensure hiring team consistency. Assess candidates consistently with evaluation guides built into the interview experience. Hiring teams can be instantly calibrated with provided job-related attributes and behavior examples validated by IO psychologists." They aim to provide "consistency to the interview process. Each candidate is asked the same questions and is reviewed using the same criteria. This, in turn, allows HireVue's customers to quickly hire better quality, more diverse applicants to fill their roles."

"BlackRock can motivate me by helping me reach my goals in the time frames I have set up for myself. I am very ambitious and have a career plan that I want to follow. If I feel I am growing professionally, I am motivated to keep at it."

Marcie's Feedback

5. Why are you currently looking for employment?

This question aims to determine under what pretense and conditions you left or are leaving your previous employer. Those who burn out at their current job might think the grass is greener on the other side, only to bring their career dissatisfaction with them. They want to ensure you would be a sustainable employee and a long-term hire.

This question may seem generic, but it is, in fact, company-specific. When researching their website, try to identify the answer they are looking for with this question. "You may not always be sure when, or how, to make your next career move, whether that means switching to a different team, advancing beyond your current position, or both. But you do know when it's time for a change, usually once you've outgrown a job. And that's why your next steps can be crucial to establishing an exciting long-term career. Once you discover that next opportunity, you want to ensure it's taking you in the right direction." Remember, they are looking for a candidate who is an ideal match for their culture and values.

Any of HireVue's clients can request varying services, from aptitude assessments to on-demand interviews customized to them. Some companies request only the recorded videos and no assessment reports. Some request the report, while others request screening and only receive the interviews that pass the algorithm's evaluations as potential top performers. Regardless of what package BlackRock has signed up for, HireVue's assessment aims to identify those candidates which BlackRock would consider top performers who are also most suited for the company's culture. So, once their hiring authority receives the materials, they can view the candidates' "virtual cover letters" side by side for further comparison and evaluation.

"It was simply time for a change. I am grateful for what my current employer has given me through my training and experiences and the relationships I've built. However, I feel a bit stagnant and haven't been challenged in the last year. I want to keep growing and advance into a leadership position, but the opportunity isn't there."

6. How did you come to choose your career?

Interviewers ask this question to determine whether you intentionally pursued your career or fell into it. However, this question is not asking whether you are satisfied with your career. It is possible for someone to fall into their career and still have career satisfaction. However, if this opportunity opens the door for you to pursue a preferable career, it might be worth mentioning. They even advertise that you can switch careers internally in their efforts to reduce attrition. "At BlackRock, You Can Change Career Paths Without Leaving the Company. Employees Can Develop Transferable Skills. Internal Networking Opportunities Are Endless. Personal Interests Can Become a New Career Path. Development Programs Put a Focus on Learning. Managers Actively Help With Career Transitions."

Be transparent and show that you have recognized the opportunities that BlackRock has to offer you. However, if you are dissatisfied with your career and are hunting for any job anywhere, it will probably be spotted. For example, when what you say is inconsistent with how you say it (your tone, facial expressions, or mannerisms), it is commonly considered an indication of limited emotional intelligence or burnout syndrome. It also suggests a lack of self-awareness.

"I learned long ago that if you are good at something and enjoy doing it, you should pursue it. So, I chose my career because I was doing it before I got paid to do it."

7. Where would you like BlackRock to take your career?

Interviewers ask this question to distinguish candidates specifically interested in landing a career opportunity with them from those looking for any job that matches their skills anywhere. Research both the company and the position and identify how what they have to offer matches your ideal work environment and culture and how their career opportunities for advancement from within align with your career goals.

Here is the advice that BlackRock gives to their employees when they've either been hired into a position or have been promoted or transferred. "We are committed to growing and developing our employees to help them reach their full potential. Our smartest investment is you. You're in the Driving Seat. Make a plan. Be consistent. Remember that transitioning out of your current role is just as important as transitioning into your new one. Have a clear plan. It will help make for a smoother transition. Be proactive. Show your team that you're eager, willing to learn, and ready to be involved from day one, even as you're still growing into the job. Be patient. It takes time to settle into a new role, both for you and for your new teammates. Give your colleagues the space to get to know you and how your skill set best fits in. Be gracious. It's essential to maintain relationships. Be intentional. Invite a new colleague for coffee or lunch to learn more about them and the work they do. Find ways to show that you're genuinely invested."

Before your interview, learn everything you can about HireVue and how to deliver the best on-demand interview possible. For example, HireVue offers practice questions on their website to prepare you for their process. While the practice questions may not apply directly to BlackRock, they can still serve as a useful exercise. "While virtual interviewing isn't difficult, a little practice can help you prepare. Most on-demand interviews ask you to give your answer in just a few minutes. It's helpful to think about how you will illustrate your skills clearly in that timeframe, and to practice them out loud."

Entry Level Example

"I have an extensive career plan, but my plan is flexible beyond the first five years. You never know where life will take you, nor can you predict the twists and turns around the bend. I would love to continue to build my transferable skills within BlackRock and hopefully, in five years, make managing director. But should other opportunities present themselves that I feel are a more suitable fit, I would most certainly entertain them."

8. Why do you want to work with BlackRock?

This question aims to help BlackRock recruiters identify whether you are what they would consider a serious candidate who wants to specifically work for them. They are curious about your reasons for wanting to join them (culture, career goals, environment, diversity, and inclusion). This question will also help them identify which of their recruiting efforts are more successful than others. For example, here is a testimonial from one of their returning employees: "One thing that has drawn me back to BlackRock is the fact that there are so many different opportunities to either work with other teams or to try something else or to stretch ourselves in a new way."

HireVue's proprietary machine-learning algorithms will record your video interview and analyze your facial expressions, eye movements, body movements, clothing details, and vocal inflections. Once recorded, it will evaluate those data points, studying the consistency between your answers to determine your level of honesty and indications of your confidence in your statements. These will help it predict culture fit and job performance. It will then forward its findings to BlackRock's hiring authority.

HireVue defines their algorithms as 'assessment models,' which are designed to combine "video interviews with predictive, validated IO science and artificial intelligence. HireVue augments human decision-making in the hiring process and delivers higher-quality talent, faster. HireVue Assessments take the place of the same kinds of things that a recruiter or hiring manager would be looking for in a candidate for the job you're applying for."

"I was drawn to the developmental opportunities BlackRock provides their employees and the flexibility offered to try new things. BlackRock's culture feels aligned with my values and what I am looking for. But I think the employee testimonials were the final thing that pushed BlackRock to my top choice for where I would like to expand my career, for the long term, if I am so fortunate."

Communication

9. Tell me about a time you had to break bad news to a client.

This question is a test of your communication skills. More specifically, they want to know how diplomatic you would be in your approach with their customers and to what degree your conduct is guided by integrity, empathy, emotional intelligence, and active listening. As they clearly state on their website, when it comes to good communication, "Transparency and accountability are critical."

HireVue's assessment model will evaluate your communication skills in how well you deliver your response. It is common for someone who is nervous to speak fast and rush through their answers. So remain calm and relaxed, and communicate professionally, as you would with your peers. Moderate your tone, and speak smoothly, while avoiding speaking too fast or taking long pauses while you try to find the right words. Avoid crutch words, such as 'like' and 'um.'

Choose your words carefully. Look up terms that you feel best apply to you or are naturally part of your vocabulary. Use professional adjectives to describe yourself and your situation, such as career-focused, ambitious, persistent, genuine, patient, enthusiastic, disciplined, and passionate. Doing so will aid in presenting yourself as a clearer communicator and more of a professional.

"Last year, I had a client who was high maintenance in that they were always looking for a quick investment flip, chasing the get-rich-quick gamble. On most occasions, I was able to caution against such approaches, and they'd listen. But last year, their associate gave them a tip to buy into quite a bit of a risky stock. I discouraged it, but they refused to listen. As it was their money, I did what I was told, and at first, it paid off. They reached out with another tip and demanded I reinvest most of their funds in a similar scheme, and I cautioned against it again, yet they suddenly trusted this associate more than me as their trusted advisor. Well, this second gamble didn't go well, and they lost quite a bit of their capital overnight. I reached out with empathy and transparency and broke the bad news. They didn't take it well. They accused me of not cautioning them more, asking me why I let them make the biggest mistake of their life. I listened, empathized with them, and I came up with a long game plan to rebuild some of their wealth. Their finances are still on the road to recovery. But now I use this story as a cautionary tale for any other clients who come to me with a risky tip from some associate of theirs."

Compatibility

10. Why should we hire you over another equally-qualified candidate?

This is another opportunity to showcase what makes you unique as a person and what makes you uniquely qualified for their company and this position. On their website, BlackRock recommends you develop an "internal brand," which will help you market yourself as a go-to colleague with a specific skill set. "Working to be an expert in a certain area or carve out a niche where you are known as that person." In other words, how would you serve as a trusted resource of information when representing their brands and supporting your teams? Something to consider when deciding on exactly how to answer this question.

This question will help the assessment model evaluate how confident you are that you're the right fit for this opportunity and whether you're pursuing this position for the right reasons, such as career goals and culture fit, rather than an increase in your salary or proximity to your home. Your answer could reveal if you are shooting for the stars or reaching for a more realistic target.

"I am considered by my clients and colleagues as a trusted go-to resource. I take pride in what I do, I enjoy doing it, and although I have a life outside of my work, I do set aside some personal time to enjoy the more relaxing part of my job, and that is self-education, whether reading an article or a book or attending a lecture. That's what happens when you love what you do. Now I can't say whether other candidates love what they do, but odds are there are few who love what they do as much as I do."

11. Tell me about the last time you were able to advance your career goals at work.

This question aims to assess your model of ambition. Having the drive to further your goals is a positive, so long as it helps further the goals of the team. However, being an overly competitive opportunist who is only in it for yourself can negatively impact the team and doesn't exemplify the model of leadership BlackRock aims to promote.

"We are One BlackRock. We work collaboratively, without silos and without turf, to create the best outcomes for our clients, our firm, and the communities where we operate. A diverse workforce is indispensable to our creativity and success. It's how we answer the biggest questions and solve the toughest problems. An inclusive, equitable environment makes us thrive. It enables us to draw on expertise and unique experiences from across the firm and bring out the best in each other."

HireVue's assessment model will analyze the recorded videos to identify top performers most suited to the company's goals and culture. They advertise that each assessment model is customized to each company's purpose, "built for a specific job role after following these critical steps: Ensure that there is a clear performance indicator for the job role that differentiates the strongest from the least promising performers. Ask the right questions to elicit responses that can be measured and that are pertinent to predicting job performance based on IO psychology research. Train the model to notice everything relevant in the interview (what someone says and how they say it), and build a model that uses only the data points that help predict success in the job."

Written by Kevin Downey on May 10th, 2023

"The career opportunities at my current job aren't quite what I would prefer, which is why I came knocking at the doors of BlackRock. But, I still feel like any time I prove instrumental in helping advance the team's goals, I am advancing my own goals in tandem. When I kaizen my skills, whether through communication or time management, I feel like I am furthering my development in incremental ways."

12. What is your personal purpose?

This company-centric question aims to reveal how aligned you are with their core values, mission statements, and value propositions. They want to know how you bring your passions to what you do professionally. How well you answer this may set you apart from the other candidates. If you feel like the right fit, it will seem you are already a part of their team. Convey your like-mindedness and that it will take no time during your onboarding to get up to speed.

Before your interview, research the company, and learn everything about the company purpose and the personal purpose they expect their employees to have. "At BlackRock, we believe we're at our best when our employees connect their personal purpose to their work and our firm's purpose. In our 'What's Your Why' series, employees share how they bring their passions to what they do. BlackRock's purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. We rely on our principles to guide how we interact with each other, our clients, the communities in which we operate, and all of our other stakeholders. These principles represent our core values, our aspirations, and our cultural language, lived and embraced by every employee at our firm."

The assessment model will study your behavior to ascertain if you believe in what you are saying. So answer with sincerity and align your interests with theirs. This can be done easily if you have done your homework on the company and yourself.

Answer Example

"I would say it has been my purpose for some time now to provide people with power over their money. Your money can work against you, or it can work for you. All you need is just a little to get started. I'm here to help my clients get started and keep growing."

13. Who are BlackRock's clients?

This is a simple test of your company knowledge and how well you have prepared for your interview. The answers can easily be found on their website. But this question could also test your communication skills and how well you might answer this question to a potential customer. In your own words, describe the products and services BlackRock offers with subtle enthusiasm and pride.

"Who we serve: Individuals and families, financial advisors, educational and nonprofit organizations, retirees, insurance companies, and governments. Providing choice for those investing for retirement, a new home, or a child's education, helping people at all income levels invest for their futures, working to educate more students, and solve social challenges. Managing the retirement savings of teachers, doctors, workers, and small business owners, supporting people during life's most difficult moments. Financing new hospitals, schools, roads, and other projects helping to drive economic growth."

You always want to seem prepared to answer the question posed while exuding confidence and communicating clearly. Enunciate your words, avoiding stutters or long pauses. Sounding too rehearsed likewise can make you sound wooden and boorish. Practice in front of your computer's camera, trying not to look at yourself on the screen, but rather maintaining eye contact with the camera lens as if you're speaking face-to-face with a person, and keep at it until you are relaxed and seem natural.

"Everyone from families to financial advisors, educational and nonprofit organizations, retirees, insurance companies, and even governmental institutions."

Creative Thinking

14. Tell me about the last time you were passionate about finding a better way to do something at work.

Here is another company-specific question with several keywords from their website to determine your fit for this role and their company culture. As they state on their website, "We are passionate about performance. We are relentless about finding better ways to serve our clients and improve our firm. Since our founding, innovation has been at the center of how we deliver performance and stay ahead of our clients' needs. We have continually reinvented our firm and our industry to help people achieve their goals. We are lifelong students, of markets, of technology, and of the world."

When exploring how to answer this question, spend some time researching yourself and your accomplishments, and outline your approach to innovation and your passion for helping your company and your teams improve in both operations and performance. Analyze how your approach aligns with BlackRock's across all fronts; short-term goals, long-term goals, and the big picture.

"I would consider myself an inwardly passionate person in that I am driven and always looking at things from every angle. I believe for something to be done right, it should always be done along the path of least resistance. When I notice that people start taking shortcuts, I take notice. Why is the shortcut necessary? This is always a sign that the procedure needs adjusting. I am always making suggestions to streamline productivity."

Customer Service

15. Tell me about the last time had to deal with a demanding client while you were busy with other things on the job.

This question not only aims to assess whether they could trust you to represent their brand when engaging with their clients but also whether you could be trusted to multitask the varying functions of your job while maintaining your attention to detail. How you answer could potentially inform them whether you meet their required experience level, whether you would be able to manage your stress, and operate with integrity. As they state on their site, "We are a fiduciary to our clients. Our clients' interests come first. The fiduciary mindset is the bedrock of our identity. It reflects our integrity and the unbiased advice we give our clients. And it's what inspires us to come to work every day and help people build better futures."

Try to make your responses as structured and concise as possible. Avoid rambling or delivering roundabout answers. This is why it is recommended to use the STAR method when structuring your answers. Address each answer by first offering the SITUATION involved with your example. Then move into the TASK this situation required. Then share the ACTION you took and the RESULT of your actions. This will add structure to your answers.

Written by Kevin Downey on May 5th, 2023

"I had a client who was upset that some of their portfolio had lost value, but they were upset about something that didn't affect their portfolio, as they were investing conservatively with the long-term planning for their retirement. I was in the middle of preparing for a meeting that I was going to conduct in 15 minutes. I quickly dropped everything and worked on calming this individual by actively listening to their grievances, mirroring what they were communicating so that they felt heard, and empathizing situationally. I then educated them further on our approach and what you often see with such stable, long-term stock investments. I was able to walk them back from the cliff with five minutes left to prepare for my meeting. I then wrapped up my notes in shorthand, informed everyone attending the meeting that there would be a three-minute delay, and I was on top of it after that."

16. Have you ever violated a verbal or written confidentiality agreement?

This question aims to assess your integrity. Whether it was a legally binding contract or a spoken promise, they need assurances that you can be trusted with the personal information of their clients and their protected company information. So speak your integrity, offering anything you can to affirm you can be entrusted to represent their company.

As they state on their website, "BlackRock's employees have an obligation of confidentiality to BlackRock and its clients. The obligation to preserve confidential information continues even after employment ends. This obligation does not limit employees from reporting possible violations of law or regulation to a regulator or from making disclosures under whistleblower provisions, as discussed in greater detail in the Global Policy for Reporting Illegal or Unethical Conduct and relevant confidentiality policies and agreements."

Remember to maintain relaxed and confident body language and facial expressions. Relax the muscles in your face and around your eyes. Lower your shoulders, slightly tilt your head and nod while speaking slowly and confidently.

"I take any contract I sign very seriously, just as I take any verbal agreement I make. It is not only an issue of my integrity and trust; it affects the reputation of those around me, as well. So I have never violated any agreements of any kind."

17. Have you ever stolen supplies from work?

This may seem like an innocent question, but it is a test of your character. It aims to determine the lengths you would go to protect your company's assets. If there were instances where you were granted permission to take home supplies from work, for whatever reason, this is different and can be shared with transparency and context. But ultimately, you want to remain consistent with your brand of integrity from one question to the next.

Check out the following statement defining BlackRock's protection and proper use of their assets: "Employees and directors should make every effort to protect BlackRock's assets and use them efficiently. This obligation extends to BlackRock's proprietary information, including intellectual property such as trade secrets, patents, trademarks, and copyrights, as well as business, marketing, and service plans, engineering and manufacturing ideas, systems, software programs, designs, databases, records, salary information, and any unpublished financial data and reports."

HireVue's assessment model will study your virtual cover letter for any signs of discomfort or dishonesty. Verbal cues they'll analyze to identify if you're exaggerating or not being completely honest include repeating a question before answering, speaking in sentence fragments, displaying a change in speech pattern, irregular speech, and rising and falling tone. When your words don't match your gestures, your gestures will be seen as the truth. So maintain eye contact and confident body language, be comfortable, and speak from the heart.

"Some find it annoying, but I am such a rule abider. I refuse to do anything unless it is by the book. So, even if it is 20 pages from the copier, I will ask if it is okay to take it home with me. If my superiors say it isn't, I have no problem with that and don't take it personally. I figure it never hurts to ask. But when you steal, that hurts someone, and usually, it is yourself, your integrity, and the worth of your character, if not the people around you."

18. Have you ever suffered from the consequences of doing the right thing?

This question may seem confusing at first glance, but after doing more than adequate research on the company, you'll discover how they define their business' code of conduct and their support of whistleblowers doing the right thing without fear of retaliation. In many such circumstances, it can be difficult to report the unethical conduct of a teammate, and fear of retaliation is valid. However, the interviewer asks this question to determine whether you have the integrity and the courage to do the right thing while protecting and prioritizing the company's interests.

Here is a summary of BlackRock's Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, which "sets out basic principles to guide employee conduct. The code is supported by employee conduct policies and programs and reinforced through employee training. We have zero tolerance in relation to illegal or unethical conduct. Any employee who violates the requirements of the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, or many of our other policies, is subject to disciplinary action. Every employee is required to report any illegal or unethical conduct about which they become aware. Employees have the right to report directly to a regulator and may do so anonymously, without fear of retaliation."

"I became friends with a teammate over the years. We were close. However, one day they called out sick and asked if I would take over a project for them, and I did. But when I logged onto their computer and looked for the folder where the files for this project were stored, I inadvertently stumbled on some communication that revealed he'd been doing some insider trading and had taken bribes. It was unfortunate to be put into such a position, but I had to report it promptly. There was also no way to conceal that I had been the one who had reported him, as it was self-obvious. So there was no anonymous tip or anything like that. I lost a friend that day. It was a pity."

19. Tell me about the last time your sense of integrity was put to the test.

Black Rock advertises that they set high standards for themselves and their employees. "Our reputation for integrity is one of our most important assets. We hold ourselves to standards that not only meet those required by the laws and regulations that apply to us but also to our principles, which are rooted in exceeding our clients' expectations." When answering this question, share an example where your integrity shined, aligning yourself with their expectations. If you have been fortunate enough to not be put in such a situation, that's fine. In this case, share how you would proceed if your integrity was put to the test.

HireVue's assessment models will evaluate how honestly you present your answers, so answer as sincerely as possible. The assessment vendor will use nonverbal cues to assess your honesty, such as stroking your chin and covering your mouth or your eyes, gaze avoidance, the direction of your eyes, excessive fidgeting such as restless foot and leg movements, frequent body posture changes, and grooming behaviors such as playing with hair or pressing your fingers to lips.

"I had a client that desperately needed my help, and I promised I would deliver by the end of the day. But that was predicated on them getting back to me with some crucial information. However, they weren't prompt in getting back to me. Issues with daycare, they later told me. I had given my word, and because of their delay, I was at work three hours later than expected. I am accountable for my actions and should have thought it through before I gave my word. But I have integrity, so I kept at it until it was done."

20. How do you feel about working for a company that celebrates and promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion?

This question is a test of your cultural competence to determine how well you would work with and support fellow members of your teams. When answering this question, focus on your sense of innovation through collaboration. Being interested in, supportive of, and wanting to learn from those with different perspectives suggests you are team focused and take charge of your development with a drive to build upon your experience wherever you can. As Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, puts it, "We all just want to be respected - to be treated with dignity; listened to; and heard. Once you understand that, you realize how simple it is to reach out and make connections. So as we face a daunting set of global challenges, we have to face them not as adversaries, but as fellow human beings."

Here are some diversity and inclusion statements taken from BlackRock's website: "Our philosophy of working as One BlackRock is at the core of our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across every level of our firm and within every region and country we operate - across gender, race, ethnicity, disability and veteran status, among others. At BlackRock, DEI is a business imperative. We know that a diverse workforce is indispensable to our creativity and success. It's how we answer the biggest questions and solve the toughest problems. An inclusive, equitable environment makes us thrive. It enables us to draw on expertise and unique experiences from across the firm and bring out the best in each other."

Both BlackRock and HireVue advertise that they continually make efforts to mitigate bias. BlackRock states that they regularly review job postings for biased language. HireVue also states that they "actively work to prevent the introduction or propagation of bias against any group or individual" and claims their assessments focus on skills and competencies, not age, race, or gender. "We also continue to advance our abilities to monitor, detect, and mitigate bias. We strive to build teams from diverse backgrounds with diverse knowledge, experiences, and perspectives to best represent the people our systems serve."

How to Answer

Conveying cultural competence requires interest, openness, and curiosity. It also helps to showcase your communication skills while delivering your answer to suggest you have overcome any language bias. Language bias refers to preferentially communicating with those who communicate similarly to oneself, which requires less effort and less of a test of one's communication skills. So when delivering your answer, lean in, tilt your head as you speak, smile and make eye contact with the camera. Avoid giving signs of discomfort or avoidance, which could be interpreted as negative bias and antipathy. Such nonverbal cues include decreased positivity, less eye contact and more gaze aversion, fewer smiles, greater interpersonal distance, and increased blinking. Consider these points when formulating your answer.

"I would feel weird about working for a company that didn't. I consider myself pretty cultured. The more diverse and varied everyone is, the more there is to learn about others and myself."

21. Tell me about the last time you actively sought to learn something new at work.

This question will help determine how aligned your values are with theirs and the professional drive with which you typically operate. How you answer may inform them of whether you are comfortable cruising along with the status quo, performing according to your job's description as your work standard. They are looking for candidates whose work standard goes above and beyond in their professional development and for their teams. They are looking for those who never stop asking questions and always look for ways to do better.

One of BlackRock's core values they define as "Our Curiosity: We have an insatiable desire to learn everything we can. Not just about our business, but also about ourselves. We embrace curiosity and are open to new ideas because global markets change, new technologies emerge and our clients' needs evolve. The world never stands still, and neither do we. At BlackRock, we're always asking ourselves, what do we need to learn today?"

"Every day. I am huge on actively listening. My manager is used to me tagging along when there is a discussion. At first, my boss would ask what I was doing, and I would say I am actively listening. Even if I wasn't participating in the conversation, I was doing what I could to gain as much of a behind-the-scenes view as possible. Without that, I don't think I could support all our big-picture goals as I do now."

22. Tell us about your professional education.

This question focuses on your professional education. Feel free to include, but don't restrict yourself to, your formal education. Expand your educational journey to your on-the-job training, books you've read, seminars you've attended, and anything you've learned along the way that helped you develop and grow as a professional. Painting a complete picture helps showcase your experience level and where you hope BlackRock can take your career next. Explore the opportunities they present as a company, and speak to how you hope those opportunities will further your career goals and aspirations.

BlackRock offers their employees many learning opportunities through on-the-job training, mentoring, and several BlackRock academies. In their recruiting efforts, they advertise this as a value proposition on their website. "Master your role anytime, anywhere, through virtual and classroom courses that will help you up your game while gaining the skills and knowledge you need to be a high performer and leader at BlackRock. Focus on your strengths and build the expertise you need to develop your career and become a thought leader. We offer development programs focused on client relationships, technology, investments, leadership, management skills, and more. We also offer training to our clients, so that they can benefit from our best thinking too."

"I had a brilliant professor in college as my first mentor. She helped me land my first job. At that job, my boss proved to be my next mentor, who taught me a great deal and told me that the road to self-improvement is never-ending and that no matter what, I had to do everything I can to keep learning and growing. Since then, my curiosity and drive have compelled me to keep learning and growing, whether by reading everything I can on my field, attending seminars, or going to conventions."

23. Tell me about the last time you made a mistake that impacted your work.

This is another question concerning your integrity and 'emotional ownership.' A person who is focused on protecting the assets of the company and the interest of the team will take responsibility for their mistakes, take measures to reduce the impact of their mistakes, and take advantage of the learning opportunity the mistake presents, to ensure the mistake is not repeated. It is an issue of integrity, taking charge of your development, and earning trust.

Here is another relevant statement from BlackRock's website on emotional ownership: "The people we serve entrust us to help them prepare for the future. Our culture is defined by the deep sense of responsibility we feel to our clients and to each other. In everything we do, from the investment performance we deliver to the technology we develop, we are emotionally invested in our clients' futures. We are equally invested in the success of our firm and our colleagues. We hold ourselves and each other to the highest standards of excellence."

How emotionally intelligent you are could be revealed through the verbal and nonverbal cues of your answer to this question. It is common for a person to relive the emotions of a memory upon recalling it. So, if you haven't learned from the experience and haven't taken ownership of it, you might narrow your eyes, fold your arms, and crinkle your eyebrows. So try to avoid any defensive behavior, posturing, movements, or gestures that could be interpreted as insecure, closed-off, unapproachable, hostile, or disinterested. You may think coming across as a strong figure could be beneficial, but true strength comes from within. Therefore, you want to come across as confident and relaxed. And remember, sharing a story of a mistake you learned from showcases your strength. No one can hold over you something you already own.

"Last year, I was pulled away from verifying some reports, which required me to compare a few documents line by line with each other. Then a more urgent priority pulled me away from that project, and I failed to track where I'd left off. When I came back to it, someone had tidied up my station. This was my fault for not protecting my work, but it required me to start over. This resulted in me losing a day's worth of work."

24. How would you describe your emotional ownership?

Many of BlackRock's job listings say they are looking for those with "high emotional ownership" who are self-starters with "high energy, motivation, commitment to excellence and positive approach to business challenges." So when speaking about your emotional maturity or intelligence, be mindful of their company culture language and adopt their brand of emotional ownership into your answer. Describe how you take ownership of your commitments, of your actions, how you communicate with others, and how you own your emotions rather than letting them dictate your behavior.

It is equally important to be emotionally centered when delivering your answers. Speak with confidence, and be relaxed and at ease. You want to come across as in your comfort zone. Be mindful of your posture and smile with your mouth and eyes. Keep your body language open, your tone steady, even, and consistent with your statements. So practice beforehand until you are comfortable with this style of interview and come across as if you are speaking to a real person or an audience.

"I would say I have strong emotional ownership. Early on, I realized my worst responses came from a place of emotional confusion. So I learned to be hyper-focused on what I was feeling and became super proficient in communicating more effectively with myself and others. Now, I take ownership of my emotions and actions and hold myself accountable whenever need be."

25. Tell me about the last time someone gave you unsolicited feedback.

This question assesses your emotional intelligence and experience as a professional. How you answer will inform them of whether receiving feedback is difficult for you and makes you defensive or if you actively seek out feedback and take advantage of the learning opportunity it presents. BlackRock believes that one should treat feedback as a gift and says, "You're not doing anyone any favors by letting them repeat the same mistake."

BlackRock speaks to the necessity and benefits of feedback in depth on their website: "Feedback... can't live with it, can't live without it. Those with managerial experience know it can be as hard to deliver as it is to receive, but see constructive criticism for what it really is, a gift. It's hard to do, but mentors should give more honest feedback. If you're going to have an open relationship, you must be willing to give both the good and the bad. Mentees are appreciative in the end. Honest feedback made them better and ultimately advanced their career. As a mentor, that's the optimal outcome."

"I don't receive unsolicited feedback often because I am always compulsively asking for feedback. I am very proactive when it comes to seeking out feedback. I am also very transparent. I let everyone know that I am not beyond reproach and have an open-door policy regarding expressing concerns or offering advice. As I result, I find I rarely actually receive unsolicited feedback."

26. When was the last time you exhibited real leadership potential?

BlackRock is interested in forming long-term relationships and training and developing their employees in their brand of leadership rather than hiring from outside the company. "We identify and grow our leaders to help them achieve their career goals while driving our firm's future growth." Whether you have formal leadership experience or are interested in pursuing a leadership position, speak to those times you showed initiative and rose to the occasion to go to the batt for your team. Describe a time you took the lead on your professional development, and explain where you hope this opportunity with BlackRock could take your career.

BlackRock offers several leadership training programs, stating that they "aim to foster leadership at all levels. We know that a critical driver of our future growth is our ability to grow strong leaders. Our Leadership and Management Academy is available to all employees and provides access to world-class content to help build their leadership skills and behaviors."

Your professional experience should be represented in your appearance, space, and the words you choose to answer each question. Your personal space will be viewed as a reflection of your professionalism and work ethic. So make sure you choose a space for your recorded interview that is clear of distractions, is not too cluttered, and is neat, tidy, and organized.

"One of our leaders asked me to step into a team project I wasn't part of. They were struggling, and it was clear they wouldn't meet their deadline. An inexperienced supervisor had assigned different members of the team to tasks that didn't play to their strengths. I stepped in, evaluated what was happening, restructured the team by reassigning tasks, and then coached them on the impact of their roles. We met that deadline in the end. The silver lining was that several individuals came to me for mentoring after the fact, wanting to improve in those areas where they'd been struggling. So we identified several growth opportunities as well."

27. What kind of salary are you looking for?

To navigate this question in a recorded assessment video, you should never close negotiations by giving a firm number or even a range. Instead, speak to your professional worth in numbers. You can do this by sharing what you are currently paid and the benefits you receive that compare with theirs, or better yet, where their benefits fall short. Also, offer the percentage you expect with your next pay increase at your current company and your projected income for the next year or two. If your current employer tried to incentivize you to stay on board with them, this is worth sharing as a testament to your professional worth. Then, you can close with where you hope to go with your career in the next year or two, what you have to offer, and that you are open to continuing this conversation in person.

Explore the benefits and rewards Blackrock offers on their site. Doing so will come in handy when answering this question, not only in that it showcases a thorough work ethic, which speaks to your professional worth but also in comparing the benefits you currently receive to what they have to offer. Black Rock advertises their base salary, benefits, and rewards on many of their job postings and in their recruiting efforts on their website. "To help you stay energized, engaged, and inspired, we offer a wide range of benefits including a strong retirement plan, tuition reimbursement, comprehensive healthcare, support for working parents, and Flexible Time Off so you can relax, recharge and be there for the people you care about."

The body language of a confident and relaxed person in a seated position is of being open and unguarded. This means having your arms resting on the armrests of your chairs and hands open and relaxed, or leaning forward, making eye contact, and keeping your shoulders lowered and relaxed. If you are having trouble getting into the right headspace, there are several tricks you can employ before your interview begins. Do some quick physical exercises. Do some stretches. Give yourself a pep talk, reminding yourself of what you have to offer and what makes you unique. And remember, they want to know more about you, and no one knows more about that subject than you.

"My current salary is on my resume, so it probably doesn't need repeating. The benefits package I currently receive is generously comparable to what BlackRock offers. My current employer offered me a 4% increase if I stay on board, with another 3% increase over the next year. However, I am attracted to the growth opportunity BlackRock has to offer my career, and would be open to discussing salary and career options."

28. Do you prefer to work independently or as part of a team?

Often this question explores whether you are an introvert, an ambivert, or an extrovert. Knowing this will help them better understand how to train and motivate you and where to place you in their teams. But it also serves to reveal how team-oriented you are and whether you will fit into their culture, adhere to their standards, and meet their expectations.

Verse yourself with their culture as much as possible. Think of it as getting a head start on the onboarding process. The further along you seem and the stronger your work ethic, the more appealing a candidate you will be. For example, here is a culture statement from their website on how they define the teams at BlackRock: "We all have a role to play in leading the firm's future growth. We believe that diverse teams with complementary strengths are critical to our success. Explore our teams below to discover an opportunity that's right for you."

"I am happy, open, and willing to rise to the occasion to whatever the team should need of me. I am adaptable and can shift from more solitary work to collaborative."

29. How important is it for you to cultivate relationships at work?

BlackRock expects their employees to 'cultivate relationships.' This involves building relationships with their teams and customers alike. This is especially important upon onboarding with a new company. So share your approach to building relationships through transparency, active listening, asking questions, empathy, and humility.

"Don't overlook one of your most powerful tools: networking. From peers to senior leaders, those connections can provide insight and support for your professional growth. Your network is one of the most valuable resources you can cultivate in your career. Your network is not just there to give you opportunities; it's also there for support and to help you learn. And with BlackRock's employee, professional, and impact networks, it's incredibly easy to meet colleagues from other teams, start building relationships and discover different areas of the firm you want to explore. You may even find your next mentor."

The first person you should try to build a professional relationship with is the hiring authority, who will review this recorded "virtual cover letter." So, showing your personality can go a long way. Imagine you are speaking to that person. Maintain eye contact, and smile softly. You want to strike a confident and natural demeanor. Nonverbal cues for empathy are slightly tilting your head, nodding slowly, keeping your palms open, maintaining eye contact, smiling softly, and slightly raising your eyebrows. Posture yourself in a relaxed and comfortable position, and be yourself.

"It is very important to me. But I'd say it is important to cultivate relationships at work, with your teams and clients alike, regardless of who you are."

30. You have two quarters, eight dimes, three nickels, and one penny. Using all but three of your coins, what coins do you use to pay for an ice cream for $0.95?

This is an assessment of your problem-solving skills. How you answer will indicate whether you have the basic mathematical skills to ensure accuracy and high-level attention to detail. Since the question is intended to take you off guard, you'll have to think quickly.

HireVue advertises that their assessment "models focus on skills, behaviors, and competencies specific to the job." For example, they state, "Common types of questions you'll see in a video-based assessment are situational judgment questions. You'll be asked what actions to take when confronted with a hypothetical situation."

This question could also assess how well you deal with stress and whether you can think clearly and analytically under pressure. Consider this when you aim to convey that you keep calm under pressure.

"Easy. The money I would have counted out and paid with is eight dimes and three nickels. I'd keep the two quarters and one penny for myself or hand to the person out on the corner asking for change."

Get 25% off all test packages.

Get 25% off all test packages!

Click below to get 25% off all test packages.

BlackRock Tests

https://careers.blackrock.com/
New York, US
211 questions

BlackRock is one of the world’s preeminent asset management firms founded by eight entrepreneurs who wanted to combine the best of financial leadership and technology. Their mission is to create a better financial future for clients and they are looking for the future leaders to push them forward.

Careers at BlackRock

Founded in 1988, BlackRock is a US Investment and Asset Management company. Headquartered in New York, BlackRock has offices in 38 countries; it is considered one of the world’s largest asset management companies, helping investors invest their money to secure their financial well-being.

As an organization that employs over 15,000 people worldwide, there are diverse career opportunities at BlackRock for those at all experience levels. Those at university can join BlackRock on early career placement, internship, or graduate programs, depending on their year of study. Individuals with previous experience can apply to specific positions in one of the firm’s ten expertise areas according to their areas of interest and experience:

Human Resources

Finance and Internal Audit

Business Management & Strategy

Analytics & Risk

Business Operations

Marketing & Communications

Sales & Technology

Legal & Compliance

Individuals applying to BlackRock must demonstrate their commitment to a career at BlackRock, their career motivations for applying, and showcase their skills and abilities as relevant to the role they are applying for.

BlackRock looks for candidates who can be themselves in the workplace, valuing an inclusive and diverse work environment. This is carried through into the organization’s commitment to building deep client relationships.

BlackRock commits to understanding its client’s diversity and inclusion needs and ensuring these are considered alongside its investment objectives. Individuals applying to BlackRock must understand the organization’s five principles and be committed to them, understanding how to bring these values to the role they are applying for.

BlackRock Application Process

Online application, virtual cover letter, aptitude tests, interview(s).

BlackRock runs a defined recruitment process that comprehensively evaluates candidates on the skills and attributes the organization looks for in its applicants.

The recruitment process is split into five steps:

Online application

Virtual cover letter

Aptitude tests

First interview

Final interview

Individuals applying for software engineering roles must also complete an online coding challenge.

All applications to BlackRock are taken online through its dedicated recruitment portal. Candidates must register on the careers page of the BlackRock website, search for their preferred vacancy, then create a personal recruitment account before applying.

BlackRock welcomes applications from candidates from all backgrounds. Individuals wishing to apply to BlackRock’s internship and graduate programs can apply with any degree discipline.

The BlackRock online application form is standardized. Candidates must provide personal details such as contact information, educational background, and relevant work experience. Candidates must also upload an up-to-date copy of their resume supporting their application.

Upon completion of the online application, candidates complete a virtual cover letter. This takes the form of a virtual recorded interview. Candidates must answer two questions and record their responses to each.

The virtual cover letter process takes around 10 minutes to complete. Candidates are presented with a question, given three minutes to prepare, then record their responses which must last at most 90 seconds.

In responses to the two questions in the virtual interview, candidates’ responses should demonstrate their understanding of the role and why they are interested in the role, and why they have applied to BlackRock as an organization.

Candidates must also demonstrate commercial awareness, specifically their understanding of asset management and how BlackRock’s values align with theirs. Individuals also need to consider their skills and how they can be used in the role, showcasing their curiosity, passion for lifelong learning, and innovation in highlighting their suitability for the position.

The virtual cover letter must be completed within three calendar days of receiving the invitation to complete. Candidates must also complete their virtual cover letter recording in one sitting.

BlackRock Aptitude Tests

BlackRock uses various aptitude tests as part of its recruitment process, these are role dependent and include:

BlackRock Coding Challenge

Candidates applying to technical roles are evaluated on their coding knowledge. The test lasts up to 90 minutes and comprises six coding questions.

BlackRock numerical reasoning tests

Some candidates may need to sit a numerical reasoning test . This test evaluates individuals’ aptitude for using numerical information to solve problems. Questions are given as charts, graphs, or tables. Candidates must use their knowledge of basic mathematical principles (percentages, ratios, fractions) to solve numerical problems.

I learnt exactly where I needed more practice and could focus on improving those areas.

BlackRock Group Exercise

All candidates participate in a group assessment . This assesses an individual’s ability to work successfully in a group and communicate effectively with others.

Candidates work in small groups to discuss a solution to a business-related problem. Individuals are given a pack of information. They must prepare individually before discussing their rationale and views in the group.

Ensure to find a balance between speaking up and making your point but without dominating the group. You must show the assessor that you can work well in any situation, especially within a team as that is something that will be expected of you at the company.

BlackRock Case study

This exercise evaluates candidates’ critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and communication skills. Candidates are given information on a business issue they are likely to face in the role. They must read, analyze and synthesize their rationale to approach the problem. Then, discuss this with the interviewer, clearly outlining the reasons for their approach.

BlackRock Presentation

You will be given information to analyse and present to the assessors, the length of which will be roughly 10 minutes. You will be given time to prepare and will be allowed to take prompts in with you. This will be assessing your public speaking and presenting skills. You will also be expected to answer questions following completion of your presentation. Ensure you read widely prior to the assessment centre about the organisation and industry.

First Interview

Those successful at the application and virtual cover letter stage are invited to attend BlackRock’s first interview(s) stage.

All BlackRock interviews are held virtually. The first interviews comprise up to two interviews, each lasting 30 minutes, held with a member of the business team that candidates have applied to.

Interviewers will ask questions based on BlackRock’s five core principles:

One BlackRock: working collaboratively, having a diverse and inclusive workforce drawing on expertise to bring out the best in each other.

Passionate about performance: finding better ways to work with clients, being innovative, and constantly learning about the financial markets, technology, and the business world.

Take emotional ownership: having a sense of responsibility, responsible for our client’s futures, the firm’s success, and those we work with. Constantly upholding standards of excellence.

Committed to a better future: think about the long term, running a sustainable business, using innovation to find additional ways to serve clients, and helping others achieve financial well-being.

Fiduciaries: avoiding conflict of interest by putting the interests of our clients first.

Candidates are also asked about their qualifications and what makes them suitable candidates for the role.

Those applying for technical roles such as software engineering will be asked technical questions relevant to the role they have applied for.

Final Interview

Successful candidates at the first interview stage are invited to attend a virtual round of final interviews. This stage comprises several 30-minute interactive interviews, again with members of the business teams.

Candidates are asked several behavioral questions to determine their suitability for the role, using their past experiences to inform their responses. All behavioral questions are linked to the skills and attributes required for success in the role.

Those applying for technical roles will also be asked additional questions to ascertain their level of technical expertise.

Practice Aptitude Tests is not associated with BlackRock. We provide preparation services for BlackRock psychometric tests. Our tests are not designed to be identical to any style, employer or industry. Visit https://careers.blackrock.com/ to find out more.

BlackRock Tests FAQs

Do i need a relevant degree to apply.

BlackRock is an asset management firm focused on ensuring diversity and inclusion amongst its workforce. For its early career programs, BlackRock welcomes applicants from any degree discipline.

What happens if I don’t complete the virtual cover letter by the deadline?

All candidates must complete and submit their virtual cover letter within the 72-hour deadline. Candidates’ applications will not be considered if the deadline isn’t met.

How many applications can I submit?

Individuals can submit a maximum of two applications for different positions each year. Applications should be for one program: graduate/ placement and for up to two business areas within the selected program.

Do I need to complete a different virtual cover letter if I submit more than one application?

Candidates must complete a virtual cover letter for every application they submit. No more than two applications can be submitted in any year.

Can I reapply if I am unsuccessful in my application?

BlackRock welcomes applications from those who have previously been unsuccessful in their application. All candidates re-applying must ensure they do not exceed the two applications per year limit and meet the requirements of the program they are applying to.

How long does the recruitment process at BlackRock take?

The recruitment process at BlackRock varies according to the role. The firm recruits on a deadline drive basis, candidates must check the careers pages of the BlackRock website for details on open and close dates for positions. Applications are generally not reviewed until the close date has passed.

Enjoy what you’ve read? Let others know!

Share on whatsapp
Share on linkedin
Share on twitter
Share on facebook
Share via email

Try BlackRock Tests for Free

Blackrock 01.

20 Questions | 20 Minutes

Blackrock 02

Blackrock 03, improve your scores with our intelligent learning system.

Immediate access. Cancel anytime.

30 Numerical reasoning tests
30 Verbal reasoning tests
30 Diagrammatic reasoning tests
30 Situational judgement tests
34 Publisher packages e.g. Watson Glaser
252 Employer packages e.g. HSBC
29 Extra packages e.g Mechanical
Dashboard performance tracking
Full solutions and explanations
Tips, tricks, guides and resources
Access to free tests
Basic performance tracking
Solutions & explanations
Tips and resources

Reviews of our Blackrock tests

What our customers say about our Blackrock tests

June 28, 2022

It was very different from any general aptitude test.

It was very different from any general aptitude test. All the graphical representations, analyses and moreover different currency conversions need a lot of attention to solve with precision and accuracy.

simha badri

September 03, 2021

Interesting

I have never take a test like this before. While I cannot comment on the quality of questions with regard to what Blackrock normally asks, I can say that your test-taking interface was really good.

Mamoon Masud

United States of America

May 14, 2021

normal difficulty level

The questions were good, but they could be more tough.

By using our website you agree with our Cookie Policy.

Careers at BlackRock

Event - lunch & learn with a campus recruiter: cv & virtual cover letter workshop [emea].

07 October 2022 12:00PM BST

07 October 2022 1:00PM BST

Virtual

At BlackRock, we help more and more people experience financial well-being. Being a part of BlackRock means being a part of a community of smart, ambitious people. We value diversity of thought and background and believe everyone has a voice at the table. No matter your level, you’ll be given real responsibility from day one – and we’ll be looking to you to help us challenge the status quo.

This virtual CV & Virtual Cover Letter Workshop will help students learn how to create a stand-out resume and Virtual Cover Letter. You'll also have the chance to ask questions on our recruitment process.

We offer Full-Time Analyst, Summer Internship, Placement, Off-Cycle and Spring Insight positions across a wide breadth of business areas. Read more about our opportunities here. Registration for this event closes on 04 October. Registrants will be screened to ensure that all attendees meet the eligibility criteria of our programs and are graduating between July 2022 and July 2025. Successful registrants will receive details on how to join the event after registration closes.

This Program / Vacancy is closed to applications.

Connect with us
Life at BlackRock
Our Locations
Search Jobs
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Business Continuity

BlackRock is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity to all applicants and existing employees and we evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, creed, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity/expression), sexual orientation, age, ancestry, physical or mental disability, marital status, political affiliation, religion, citizenship status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected under applicable federal, state, or local law. View the EEO is the Law poster here and its supplement here . The pay transparency policy is available here .

BlackRock is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please send an e-mail to [email protected] and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.

Explore Jobs

Jobs Near Me
Remote Jobs
Full Time Jobs
Part Time Jobs
Entry Level Jobs
Work From Home Jobs

Find Specific Jobs

$15 Per Hour Jobs
$20 Per Hour Jobs
Hiring Immediately Jobs
High School Jobs
H1b Visa Jobs

Explore Careers

Business And Financial
Architecture And Engineering
Computer And Mathematical

Explore Professions

What They Do
Certifications
Demographics

Best Companies

Health Care
Fortune 500

Explore Companies

CEO And Executies
Resume Builder
Career Advice
Explore Majors
Questions And Answers
Interview Questions

This question is about BlackRock .

How do you write a cover letter for a job at BlackRock?

To write a cover letter for a job at BlackRock you must prepare to record a virtual cover letter.

BlackRock requires candidates to submit a video cover letter in order to be considered for employment.

Here are some tips on how to put together your virtual cover letter for BlackRock:

Write and practice a script. Don't be too rigid in keeping to the exact text, the more natural your delivery, the better.

Write down the key points you want to get across.

Explain why you are a good fit to work at BlackRock.

Go into your educational and career history in a concise manner.

Touch on any relevant skills or past successes and explain how this makes you valuable to BlackRock.

Practice speaking without saying "umm".

Be sure to dress appropriately, in this case, business professional .

Try to be authentic in your delivery.

Be engaging. Smile and look directly into the camera. This helps to grab the viewer's attention.

Don't talk too fast or too slow.

Make sure you can clearly articulate why you want to work at BlackRock.

You have 90 seconds to complete your virtual cover letter for BlackRock. Be sure you have done the necessary practice beforehand.

How do you write a cover letter for a job at BlackRock?

Search for jobs

BlackRock Jobs

Learn more about blackrock jobs.

What is the BlackRock hierarchy structure?

What benefits does BlackRock offer?

How do you answer "why are you interested in working for BlackRock?"

Does BlackRock hire felons?

What is the dress code at BlackRock?

Zippia Answers
How Do You Write A Cover Letter For A Job At Black Rock

More From Forbes

Why blackrock’s larry fink thinks we need to re-invent retirement.

Share to Facebook
Share to Twitter
Share to Linkedin

Larry Fink. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

When Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock BLK , voices some opinions on retirement, I listen carefully and look into his statements with a microscope. I think his insights far outweigh those of Warren Buffett. BlackRock now manages more than $10 trillion , which makes it one of the most influential money managers on the planet.

Fink is a thought leader extraordinaire for his views on environmental, social and government (ESG) issues, a punching bag for conservative, ossified Wall Street hacks. His observations — if you can get beyond the toxic politics of ESG haters — are like prisms that allow us to focus and fix the flaws of the U.S. retirement system.

In his most recent annual letter to investors , Fink talks about how his parents saved for retirement and how it shaped his worldview. Yet few Americans have the opportunity to be covered by a guaranteed, defined-benefit pension the way the “Greatest Generation” after World War II was protected.

Our retirement system is fragmented, flawed and failing nearly half of the working population, which is not offered a defined contribution plan like a 401(k) through their employer. Unacceptably large swaths of US workers are simply not saving enough for retirement, according to the Century Foundation .

“Although workers have the option to establish an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) outside of work and put a portion of their earnings into those tax-advantaged accounts, most do not .” the Foundation stated. “Only 12 percent of American households save for their retirement outside of the workplace through an IRA.”

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024.

Fink bemoans the disappearance of defined-benefit pensions, which a handful of big companies are considering reinstating:

“One reason my parents had a financially secure retirement was CalPERS, California’s state pension system,” Fink notes. “As a public university employee, my mom could enroll. But pension enrollment has been declining across the country since the 1980s.”

“Today in America,” Fink continues, “the retirement message that the government and companies tell their workers is effectively: ‘You’re on your own.’ And before my generation fully disappears from positions of corporate and political leadership, we have an obligation to change that.”

Why Emergency Savings Are Important

Fink’s pragmatic approach to improving retirement savings focuses on some troubling hard numbers. Many workers can’t afford to save because they lack rainy day savings.

“Four-in-10 Americans don’t have $400 to spare to cover an emergency like a car repair or hospital visit,” Fink states. “Studies show that when people have emergency savings, they’re 70% more likely to invest for retirement. But this is where workers run into another barrier: Investing is complex even if you can afford it.”

Complicating the retirement gap is mutual fund expenses. Although companies like BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street are leaders in low fund expenses, small savers and companies get hammered with high costs and commissions.

In a better, simpler world for most investors, retirement options would be cheap, streamlined and boiled down to a few options like the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan. Such a plan should be offered universally to all workers and wouldn’t be linked to employment.

One of Fink’s biggest barriers to sound retirement investing is no surprise to those who follow behavioral economics: It’s fear.

“America has rarely been a fearful country,” Fink observes. “Hope has been the nation’s greatest economic asset. People put their money in American markets for the same reason they invest in their homes and businesses — because they believe this country will be better tomorrow than it is today.”

How do you vanquish fear and invest for retirement? Educate yourself. There are more resources and tools online than ever before. Save automatically in a company plan or set one up yourself. Successful investing comes down to what President Roosevelt once said: “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Like Fink, I believe that hopeful action triumphs over fear. Set up a low-cost diversified portfolio with no-load mutual funds. You’ll feel more than hope when you look at your returns over several decades. You’ll probably feel more comfortable — and certainly less fearful.

Editorial Standards
Reprints & Permissions

Skip to main content
Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public's trust

David Folkenflik

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust.

NPR's top news executive defended its journalism and its commitment to reflecting a diverse array of views on Tuesday after a senior NPR editor wrote a broad critique of how the network has covered some of the most important stories of the age.

"An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don't have an audience that reflects America," writes Uri Berliner.

A strategic emphasis on diversity and inclusion on the basis of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, promoted by NPR's former CEO, John Lansing, has fed "the absence of viewpoint diversity," Berliner writes.

NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, wrote in a memo to staff Tuesday afternoon that she and the news leadership team strongly reject Berliner's assessment.

"We're proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories," she wrote. "We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world."

NPR names tech executive Katherine Maher to lead in turbulent era

She added, "None of our work is above scrutiny or critique. We must have vigorous discussions in the newsroom about how we serve the public as a whole."

A spokesperson for NPR said Chapin, who also serves as the network's chief content officer, would have no further comment.

Praised by NPR's critics

Berliner is a senior editor on NPR's Business Desk. (Disclosure: I, too, am part of the Business Desk, and Berliner has edited many of my past stories. He did not see any version of this article or participate in its preparation before it was posted publicly.)

Berliner's essay , titled "I've Been at NPR for 25 years. Here's How We Lost America's Trust," was published by The Free Press, a website that has welcomed journalists who have concluded that mainstream news outlets have become reflexively liberal.

Berliner writes that as a Subaru-driving, Sarah Lawrence College graduate who "was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother ," he fits the mold of a loyal NPR fan.

Yet Berliner says NPR's news coverage has fallen short on some of the most controversial stories of recent years, from the question of whether former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election, to the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19, to the significance and provenance of emails leaked from a laptop owned by Hunter Biden weeks before the 2020 election. In addition, he blasted NPR's coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

On each of these stories, Berliner asserts, NPR has suffered from groupthink due to too little diversity of viewpoints in the newsroom.

The essay ricocheted Tuesday around conservative media , with some labeling Berliner a whistleblower . Others picked it up on social media, including Elon Musk, who has lambasted NPR for leaving his social media site, X. (Musk emailed another NPR reporter a link to Berliner's article with a gibe that the reporter was a "quisling" — a World War II reference to someone who collaborates with the enemy.)

When asked for further comment late Tuesday, Berliner declined, saying the essay spoke for itself.

The arguments he raises — and counters — have percolated across U.S. newsrooms in recent years. The #MeToo sexual harassment scandals of 2016 and 2017 forced newsrooms to listen to and heed more junior colleagues. The social justice movement prompted by the killing of George Floyd in 2020 inspired a reckoning in many places. Newsroom leaders often appeared to stand on shaky ground.

Leaders at many newsrooms, including top editors at The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times , lost their jobs. Legendary Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron wrote in his memoir that he feared his bonds with the staff were "frayed beyond repair," especially over the degree of self-expression his journalists expected to exert on social media, before he decided to step down in early 2021.

Since then, Baron and others — including leaders of some of these newsrooms — have suggested that the pendulum has swung too far.

Author Interviews

Legendary editor marty baron describes his 'collision of power' with trump and bezos.

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger warned last year against journalists embracing a stance of what he calls "one-side-ism": "where journalists are demonstrating that they're on the side of the righteous."

"I really think that that can create blind spots and echo chambers," he said.

Internal arguments at The Times over the strength of its reporting on accusations that Hamas engaged in sexual assaults as part of a strategy for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel erupted publicly . The paper conducted an investigation to determine the source of a leak over a planned episode of the paper's podcast The Daily on the subject, which months later has not been released. The newsroom guild accused the paper of "targeted interrogation" of journalists of Middle Eastern descent.

Heated pushback in NPR's newsroom

Given Berliner's account of private conversations, several NPR journalists question whether they can now trust him with unguarded assessments about stories in real time. Others express frustration that he had not sought out comment in advance of publication. Berliner acknowledged to me that for this story, he did not seek NPR's approval to publish the piece, nor did he give the network advance notice.

Some of Berliner's NPR colleagues are responding heatedly. Fernando Alfonso, a senior supervising editor for digital news, wrote that he wholeheartedly rejected Berliner's critique of the coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, for which NPR's journalists, like their peers, periodically put themselves at risk.

Alfonso also took issue with Berliner's concern over the focus on diversity at NPR.

"As a person of color who has often worked in newsrooms with little to no people who look like me, the efforts NPR has made to diversify its workforce and its sources are unique and appropriate given the news industry's long-standing lack of diversity," Alfonso says. "These efforts should be celebrated and not denigrated as Uri has done."

After this story was first published, Berliner contested Alfonso's characterization, saying his criticism of NPR is about the lack of diversity of viewpoints, not its diversity itself.

"I never criticized NPR's priority of achieving a more diverse workforce in terms of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. I have not 'denigrated' NPR's newsroom diversity goals," Berliner said. "That's wrong."

Questions of diversity

Under former CEO John Lansing, NPR made increasing diversity, both of its staff and its audience, its "North Star" mission. Berliner says in the essay that NPR failed to consider broader diversity of viewpoint, noting, "In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans."

Berliner cited audience estimates that suggested a concurrent falloff in listening by Republicans. (The number of people listening to NPR broadcasts and terrestrial radio broadly has declined since the start of the pandemic.)

Former NPR vice president for news and ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin tweeted , "I know Uri. He's not wrong."

Others questioned Berliner's logic. "This probably gets causality somewhat backward," tweeted Semafor Washington editor Jordan Weissmann . "I'd guess that a lot of NPR listeners who voted for [Mitt] Romney have changed how they identify politically."

Similarly, Nieman Lab founder Joshua Benton suggested the rise of Trump alienated many NPR-appreciating Republicans from the GOP.

In recent years, NPR has greatly enhanced the percentage of people of color in its workforce and its executive ranks. Four out of 10 staffers are people of color; nearly half of NPR's leadership team identifies as Black, Asian or Latino.

"The philosophy is: Do you want to serve all of America and make sure it sounds like all of America, or not?" Lansing, who stepped down last month, says in response to Berliner's piece. "I'd welcome the argument against that."

"On radio, we were really lagging in our representation of an audience that makes us look like what America looks like today," Lansing says. The U.S. looks and sounds a lot different than it did in 1971, when NPR's first show was broadcast, Lansing says.

A network spokesperson says new NPR CEO Katherine Maher supports Chapin and her response to Berliner's critique.

The spokesperson says that Maher "believes that it's a healthy thing for a public service newsroom to engage in rigorous consideration of the needs of our audiences, including where we serve our mission well and where we can serve it better."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

As you know, we are champions of banking’s essential role in a community — its potential for bringing people together, for enabling companies and individuals to attain their goals, and for being a source of strength in difficult times.

Dear Fellow Shareholders,

Across the globe, 2023 was yet another year of significant challenges, from the terrible ongoing wars and violence in the Middle East and Ukraine to mounting terrorist activity and growing geopolitical tensions, importantly with China. Almost all nations felt the effects last year of global economic uncertainty, including higher energy and food prices, inflation rates and volatile markets. While all these events and associated instability have serious ramifications on our company, colleagues, clients and countries where we do business, their consequences on the world at large — with the extreme suffering of the Ukrainian people, escalating tragedy in the Middle East and the potential restructuring of the global order — are far more important.

As these events unfold, America’s global leadership role is being challenged outside by other nations and inside by our polarized electorate. We need to find ways to put aside our differences and work in partnership with other Western nations in the name of democracy. During this time of great crises, uniting to protect our essential freedoms, including free enterprise, is paramount. We should remember that America, “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” still remains a shining beacon of hope to citizens around the world. JPMorgan Chase, a company that historically has worked across borders and boundaries, will do its part to ensure that the global economy is safe and secure.

In spite of the unsettling landscape, including last year’s regional bank turmoil, the U.S. economy continues to be resilient, with consumers still spending, and the markets currently expect a soft landing. It is important to note that the economy is being fueled by large amounts of government deficit spending and past stimulus. There is also a growing need for increased spending as we continue transitioning to a greener economy, restructuring global supply chains, boosting military expenditure and battling rising healthcare costs. This may lead to stickier inflation and higher rates than markets expect. Furthermore, there are downside risks to watch. Quantitative tightening is draining more than $900 billion in liquidity from the system annually — and we have never truly experienced the full effect of quantitative tightening on this scale. Plus the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East continue to have the potential to disrupt energy and food markets, migration, and military and economic relationships, in addition to their dreadful human cost. These significant and somewhat unprecedented forces cause us to remain cautious.

2023 was another strong year for JPMorgan Chase, with our firm generating record revenue for the sixth consecutive year, as well as setting numerous records in each of our lines of business. We earned revenue in 2023 of $162.4 billion 1 and net income of $49.6 billion, with return on tangible common equity (ROTCE) of 21%, reflecting strong underlying performance across our businesses. We also increased our quarterly common dividend of $1.00 per share to $1.05 per share in the third quarter of 2023 — and again to $1.15 per share in the first quarter of 2024 — while continuing to reinforce our fortress balance sheet. We grew market share in several of our businesses and continued to make significant investments in products, people and technology while exercising strict risk disciplines.

Throughout the year, we demonstrated the power of our investment philosophy and guiding principles, as well as the value of being there for clients — as we always are — in both good times and bad times. The result was continued growth broadly across the firm. We will highlight a few examples from 2023: Consumer & Community Banking (CCB) extended its #1 leadership positions and grew share year-over-year in retail deposits, credit card sales and credit card outstandings (adding close to 3.6 million net new customers to the franchise); the Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB) maintained its #1 rank in both Investment Banking and Markets and gained more than 100 basis points of Investment Banking market share; Commercial Banking (CB) added over 5,000 new relationships (excluding First Republic Bank), roughly doubling the prior year’s achievement; and Asset & Wealth Management (AWM) saw record client asset net inflows of $490 billion, over 20% higher than its prior record.

In 2023, we continued to play a forceful and essential role in advancing economic growth. In total, we extended credit and raised capital totaling $2.3 trillion for our consumer and institutional clients around the world. On a daily basis, we move nearly $10 trillion in over 120 currencies and more than 160 countries, as well as safeguard over $32 trillion in assets. By purchasing First Republic Bank, we brought much-needed stability to the U.S. banking system while allowing us to give a new, secure home to over half a million First Republic customers.

As always, we hold fast to our commitment to corporate responsibility, including helping to create a stronger, more inclusive economy — from supporting work skills training programs around the world to financing affordable housing and small businesses to making investments in cities like Detroit that show how business and government leaders can work together to solve problems.

We have achieved our decades-long consistency by adhering to our key principles and strategies (see sidebar on Steadfast Principles below), which allow us to drive good organic growth and promote proper management of our capital (including dividends and stock buybacks). The charts below show our performance results and illustrate how we have grown our franchises, how we compare with our competitors and how we look at our fortress balance sheet. Please peruse them and the CEO letters in this Annual Report, all of which provide specific details about our businesses and our plans for the future.

STEADFAST PRINCIPLES WORTH REPEATING (AND ONE NEW ONE)

Looking back on the past two+ decades — starting from my time as Chairman and CEO of Bank One in 2000 — there is one common theme: our unwavering dedication to help clients, communities and countries throughout the world. It is clear that our financial discipline, constant investment in innovation and ongoing development of our people have enabled us to achieve this consistency and commitment. In addition, across the firm, we uphold certain steadfast tenets that are worth repeating.

First, our work has very real human impact. While JPMorgan Chase stock is owned by large institutions, pension plans, mutual funds and directly by single investors, in almost all cases the ultimate beneficiaries are individuals in our communities. More than 100 million people in the United States own stocks; many, in one way or another, own JPMorgan Chase stock. Frequently, these shareholders are veterans, teachers, police officers, firefighters, healthcare workers, retirees, or those saving for a home, education or retirement. Often, our employees also bank these shareholders, as well as their families and their companies. Your management team goes to work every day recognizing the enormous responsibility that we have to all of our shareholders.

Second, shareholder value can be built only if you maintain a healthy and vibrant company, which means doing a good job of taking care of your customers, employees and communities. Conversely, how can you have a healthy company if you neglect any of these stakeholders? As we have learned over the past few years, there are myriad ways an institution can demonstrate its compassion for its employees and its communities while still strengthening shareholder value.

Third, while we don’t run the company worrying about the stock price in the short run, in the long run we consider our stock price a measure of our progress over time. This progress is a function of continual investments in our people, systems and products, in good and bad times, to build our capabilities. These important investments will also drive our company’s future prospects and position it to grow and prosper for decades. Measured by stock performance, our progress is exceptional. For example, whether looking back 10 years or even farther to 2004, when the JPMorgan Chase/Bank One merger took place, we have outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and the Standard & Poor’s Financials Index.

Fourth, we are united behind basic principles and strategies (you can see the principles for How We Do Business on our website and our Purpose statement in my letter from last year) that have helped build this company and made it thrive. These allow us to maintain a fortress balance sheet, constantly invest and nurture talent, fully satisfy regulators, continually improve risk, governance and controls, and serve customers and clients while lifting up communities worldwide. This philosophy is embedded in our company culture and influences nearly every role in the firm.

Fifth, we strive to build enduring businesses, which rely on and benefit from one another, but we are not a conglomerate. This structure helps generate our superior returns. Nonetheless, despite our best efforts, the walls that protect this company are not particularly high — and we face extraordinary competition. I have written about this reality extensively in the past and cover it again in this letter. We recognize our strengths and vulnerabilities, and we play our hand as best we can.

Sixth, and this is the new one , we must be a source of strength, particularly in tough times, for our clients and the countries in which we operate. We must take seriously our role as one of the guardians of the world’s financial systems.

Seventh, we operate with a very important silent partner — the U.S. government — noting as my friend Warren Buffett points out that his company’s success is predicated upon the extraordinary conditions our country creates. He is right to say to his shareholders that when they see the American flag, they all should say thank you. We should, too. JPMorgan Chase is a healthy and thriving company, and we always want to give back and pay our fair share. We do pay our fair share — and we want it to be spent well and have the greatest impact. To give you an idea of where our taxes and fees go: In the last 10 years, we paid more than $46 billion in federal, state and local taxes in the United States and over $22 billion in taxes outside of the United States. Additionally, we paid the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation over $10 billion so that it has the resources to cover failure in the American banking sector. Our partner — the federal government — also imposes significant regulations upon us, and it is imperative that we meet all legal and regulatory requirements imposed on our company.

Eighth and finally, we know the foundation of our success rests with our people. They are the front line, both individually and as teams, serving our customers and communities, building the technology, making the strategic decisions, managing the risks, determining our investments and driving innovation. However you view the world — its complexity, risks and opportunities — a company’s prosperity requires a great team of people with guts, brains, integrity, enormous capabilities and high standards of professional excellence to ensure its ongoing success.

I remain proud of our company’s resiliency and of what our hundreds of thousands of employees around the world have achieved, collectively and individually. Throughout these challenging past few years, we have never stopped doing all the things we should be doing to serve our clients and our communities. As you know, we are champions of banking’s essential role in a community — its potential for bringing people together, for enabling companies and individuals to attain their goals, and for being a source of strength in difficult times. I often remind our employees that the work we do matters and has impact. United by our principles and purpose, we help people and institutions finance and achieve their aspirations, lifting up individuals, homeowners, small businesses, larger corporations, schools, hospitals, cities and countries in all regions of the world. What we have accomplished in the 20 years since the Bank One and JPMorgan Chase merger is evidence of the importance of our values.

CELEBRATING THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BANK ONE/JPMORGAN CHASE MERGER

J.P. Morgan Chase

By 2004, J.P. Morgan Chase already represented the consolidation of four of the 10 largest U.S. banks from 1990: The Chase Manhattan Corp., Manufacturers Hanover, Chemical Banking Corp. and, most recently, J.P. Morgan & Company. And some of their predecessor companies stretched back into the 1800s, one even into the late 1700s.

Bank One had been even busier on the acquisition front, especially across the United States. By 1998, then Banc One had more than 1,300 branches in 12 states when it announced a merger with First Chicago NBD, a Chicago-based bank created just three years earlier by the merger of First Chicago and Detroit-based NBD. Now headquartered in Chicago, the new Bank One became the largest bank in the Midwest, second largest among credit card companies and fourth largest in the United States. But the merger didn’t go as planned, with Bank One issuing three different earnings warnings. In March 2000, Bank One reached outside its executive ranks, and my tenure began as Chairman and CEO, working to overhaul the company and help bring it back to profitability and growth.

The story begins ... A merger 20 years ago helped transform two giant banks

Fast forward to 2003, and another wave of consolidation was well underway in U.S. banking. Most of the nation’s larger banks were trying to position themselves to be an “endgame winner.” In the biggest deal, Bank of America agreed to buy FleetBoston Financial Corp. for more than $40 billion. Those two banks — already amalgamations of several predecessor companies — touted the breadth of their combined retail branch network.

But they were hardly alone. In 2003, some 215 deals were announced among U.S. commercial banks and bank holding companies for a total value of $66 billion, according to Thomson Financial, which tracks merger data.

In July 2004, J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank One merged — as part of a 225-year journey — to form this exceptional company of ours: JPMorgan Chase. At its merger in 2004, the combined bank was the fourth largest bank in the world by market capitalization. But with patient groundwork over the years — fixing systems and upgrading technology, managing the notable acquisitions of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual (WaMu) and continuing to reinvest, including in our talent — we have made our company an endgame winner.

In earlier years, banks worried about their survival. While the past two decades have brought some virtually unprecedented challenges, including the great financial crisis and a pandemic followed by a global shutdown, they did not stop us from accomplishing extraordinary things. Our bank has now emerged as the #1 bank by market capitalization.

Each of our businesses is among the best in the world, with increased market share, strong financial results and an unwavering focus on serving our clients, communities and shareholders with distinction and dedication. The strengths that are embedded in JPMorgan Chase — the knowledge and cohesiveness of our people, our long-standing client relationships, our technology and product capabilities, our presence in more than 100 countries and our unquestionable fortress balance sheet — would be hard to replicate. Crucially, the strength of our company has allowed us to always be there for clients, governments and communities — in good times and in bad times — and this strength has enabled us to continually invest in building our businesses for the future.

You can see from the following charts what gains and improvements we have achieved along the way.

Read footnoted information here

Within this letter, I discuss the following:

I. SUMMARY OF OUR 2023 RESULTS AND THE PRINCIPLES THAT GUIDE US

Steadfast principles worth repeating (and a new one)
A timeline of accomplishments
Financial performance

II. UPDATE ON SPECIFIC ISSUES FACING OUR COMPANY

The critical impact of artificial intelligence
Our journey to the cloud
Acquiring First Republic Bank and its customers
Navigating in a complex and potentially dangerous world
What we learned: A five-point action plan to move forward on the climate challenge
Powering economic growth in Florida
Giving the bank regulatory and supervisory process a serious review
Protecting the essential role of market making (trading)

III. STAYING COMPETITIVE IN THE SHRINKING PUBLIC MARKETS

The pressure of quarterly earnings compounded by bad accounting and bad decisions
The hijacking of annual shareholder meetings
The evolving influence of proxy advisors
The benefits and risks of private credit
A bank’s strength: Providing flexible capital

IV. MANAGEMENT LESSONS: THINKING, DECIDING AND TAKING ACTION — DELIBERATELY AND WITH HEART

Benefiting from the OODA loop
Decision making and acting (have a process)
The secret sauce of leadership (have a heart)

V. A PIVOTAL MOMENT FOR AMERICA AND THE FREE WESTERN WORLD: STRATEGY AND POLICY MATTER

Coalescing the Western world — A uniquely American task
Strengthening our position with a comprehensive, global economic security strategy
Manager’s Journal: "A Politician's Dream Is A Businessman's Nightmare"
We should have more faith in the amazing power of our freedoms
How we can help lift up our low-income citizens and mend America's torn social fabric

Update on Specific Issues Facing Our Company

Each year, I try to update you on some of the most important issues facing our company. First and foremost may well be the impact of artificial intelligence (AI).

While we do not know the full effect or the precise rate at which AI will change our business — or how it will affect society at large — we are completely convinced the consequences will be extraordinary and possibly as transformational as some of the major technological inventions of the past several hundred years: Think the printing press, the steam engine, electricity, computing and the Internet, among others.

THE CRITICAL IMPACT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Since the firm first started using AI over a decade ago, and its first mention in my 2017 letter to shareholders, we have grown our AI organization materially. It now includes more than 2,000 AI/machine learning (ML) experts and data scientists. We continue to attract some of the best and brightest in this space and have an exceptional firmwide AI/ML and Research department with deep expertise.

We have been actively using predictive AI and ML for years — and now have over 400 use cases in production in areas such as marketing, fraud and risk — and they are increasingly driving real business value across our businesses and functions. We're also exploring the potential that generative AI (GenAI) can unlock across a range of domains, most notably in software engineering, customer service and operations, as well as in general employee productivity. In the future, we envision GenAI helping us reimagine entire business workflows. We will continue to experiment with these AI and ML capabilities and implement solutions in a safe, responsible way.

While we are investing more money in our AI capabilities, many of these projects pay for themselves. Over time, we anticipate that our use of AI has the potential to augment virtually every job, as well as impact our workforce composition. It may reduce certain job categories or roles, but it may create others as well. As we have in the past, we will aggressively retrain and redeploy our talent to make sure we are taking care of our employees if they are affected by this trend.

Finally, as a global leader across businesses and regions, we have large amounts of extraordinarily rich data that, together with AI, can fuel better insights and help us improve how we manage risk and serve our customers. In addition to making sure our data is high quality and easily accessible, we need to complete the migration of our analytical data estate to the public cloud. These new data platforms offer high-performance compute power, which will unlock our ability to use our data in ways that are hard to contemplate today.

Recognizing the importance of AI to our business, we created a new position called Chief Data & Analytics Officer that sits on our Operating Committee.

Elevating this new role to the Operating Committee level — reporting directly to Daniel Pinto and me — reflects how critical this function will be going forward and how seriously we expect AI to influence our business. This will embed data and analytics into our decision making at every level of the company. The primary focus is not just on the technical aspects of AI but also on how all management can — and should — use it. Each of our lines of business has corresponding data and analytics roles so we can share best practices, develop reusable solutions that solve multiple business problems, and continuously learn and improve as the future of AI unfolds.

Clearly, AI comes with many risks, which need to be rigorously managed.

We have a robust, well-established risk and control framework that helps us proactively stay in front of AI-related risks, particularly as the regulatory landscape evolves. And we will, of course, continue to work hard with our regulators, clients and subject matter experts to make sure we maintain the highest ethical standards and are transparent in how AI helps us make decisions; e.g., to counter bias among other things.

You may already be aware that there are bad actors using AI to try to infiltrate companies’ systems to steal money and intellectual property or simply to cause disruption and damage. For our part, we incorporate AI into our toolset to counter these threats and proactively detect and mitigate their efforts.

OUR JOURNEY TO THE CLOUD

Getting our technology to the cloud — whether the public cloud or the private cloud — is essential to fully maximize all of our capabilities, including the power of our data. The cloud offers many benefits: 1) it accelerates the speed of delivery of new services; 2) it simultaneously reduces the cost of compute power and enables, when needed, an extraordinary amount of compute capability — called burst computing; 3) it provides that compute capability across all of our data; and 4) it allows us to be able to constantly and quickly adopt new technologies because updated cloud services are continually being added — more so in the public cloud, where we benefit from the innovation that all cloud providers create, than in the private cloud, where innovation is only our own.

Of course, we are learning a lot along the way. For example, we know we should carefully pick which applications and which data go to the public cloud versus the private cloud because of the expense, security and capabilities required. In addition, it is critical that we eventually use multiple clouds to avoid lock-in. And we intend to maintain our own expertise so that we’re never reliant on the expertise of others even if that requires additional money.

We invested approximately $2 billion to build four new, modern, private cloud-based, highly reliable and efficient data centers in the United States (we have 32 data centers globally). To date, about 50% of our applications run a large part of their processing in the public or private cloud. Approximately 70% of our data is now running in the public or private cloud. By the end of 2024, we aim to have 70% of applications and 75% of data moved to the public or private cloud. The new data centers are around 30% more efficient than our existing legacy data centers. Going to the public cloud can provide 30% additional efficiency if done correctly (efficiency improves when your data and applications have been modified, or “refactored,” to enable new cloud services). We have been constantly updating most of our global data centers, and by the end of this year, we can start closing some that are larger, older and less efficient.

ACQUIRING FIRST REPUBLIC BANK AND ITS CUSTOMERS

The purchase of First Republic Bank was not something that we would have done just for ourselves. But the regulators relied on us to step forward (we worked hand in hand with the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the U.S. Treasury), and the purchase of First Republic helped stabilize and strengthen the U.S. financial system in a time of crisis.

The acquisition of a major company entails a lot of complexity. People tend to focus on the financial and economic outcomes, which is a reasonable thing to do. And in the case of First Republic, the numbers look rather good. We recorded an accounting gain of $3 billion on the purchase , and we told the world we expected to add more than $500 million to earnings annually, which we now believe will be closer to $2 billion. However, these results mask some of the true costs. First, approximately one-third of the incremental earning was simply deploying excess capital and liquidity, which doesn’t require purchasing a $300 billion bank — we simply could have bought $300 billion of assets. Second, as soon as the deal was announced, approximately 7,600 of our employees went from working on tasks that would benefit the future of JPMorgan Chase to working on the merger integration. Overall, the integration involves effectively combining more than 165 systems (e.g., statement, deposit, accounting and human resources) and consolidating policies, risk reporting, and other various rules and procedures. We hope to have most of the integration done by the middle of 2024.

Fortunately, we were very familiar and comfortable with all of the assets we were acquiring from First Republic. What we didn’t take on was First Republic’s excessive interest rate exposure — one of the reasons it failed — which we effectively hedged within days of the acquisition.

Our people did a great job of respectfully managing this transition, knowing that circumstances were particularly tough for our new colleagues, whom we tried to welcome with open arms. We did everything we could to redeploy individuals whose jobs were lost because of the merger (we directly hired over 5,000 people). Our approach has always been to go into an acquisition knowing we can learn things from other teams, and in this case, we did: First Republic had done an outstanding job serving high-net-worth clients and venture capitalists, and we are developing what is effectively a new business for us following First Republic’s servicing model. We will serve these high-net-worth clients through a single point of contact, supported by a concierge service model, across our distribution channels — including more than 20 new JPMorgan Chase branded branches.

NAVIGATING IN A COMPLEX AND POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS WORLD

In the policy section, we talk about how we may be entering one of the most treacherous geopolitical eras since World War II. And I have written in the past about high levels of debt, fiscal stimulus, ongoing deficit spending and the unknown effects of quantitative tightening (which I am more worried about than most) so I won’t repeat those views here. However, the impacts of these geopolitical and economic forces are large and somewhat unprecedented; they may not be fully understood until they have completely played out over multiple years. In any case, JPMorgan Chase must be prepared for the various potential impacts and outcomes on our company and our people.

We remain wary of economic prognosticating.

While all companies essentially budget on a base case forecast, we are very careful not to run our business that way. Instead, we look at a range of potential outcomes for which we need to be prepared. Geopolitical and economic forces have an unpredictable timetable — they may unfold over months, or years, and are nearly impossible to put into a one-year forecast. They also have an unpredictable interplay: For example, the geopolitical situation may end up having virtually no effect on the world’s economy or it could potentially be its determinative factor.

We have ongoing concerns about persistent inflationary pressures and consider a wide range of outcomes to manage interest rate exposure and other business risks.

Many key economic indicators today continue to be good and possibly improving, including inflation. But when looking ahead to tomorrow , conditions that will affect the future should be considered. For example, there seems to be a large number of persistent inflationary pressures, which may likely continue. All of the following factors appear to be inflationary: ongoing fiscal spending, remilitarization of the world, restructuring of global trade, capital needs of the new green economy, and possibly higher energy costs in the future (even though there currently is an oversupply of gas and plentiful spare capacity in oil) due to a lack of needed investment in the energy infrastructure. In the past, fiscal deficits did not seem to be closely related to inflation. In the 1970s and early 1980s, there was a general understanding that inflation was driven by “guns and butter”; i.e., fiscal deficits and the increase to the money supply, both partially driven by the Vietnam War, led to increased inflation, which went over 10%. The deficits today are even larger and occurring in boom times — not as the result of a recession — and they have been supported by quantitative easing, which was never done before the great financial crisis. Quantitative easing is a form of increasing the money supply (though it has many offsets). I remain more concerned about quantitative easing than most, and its reversal, which has never been done before at this scale.

Equity values, by most measures, are at the high end of the valuation range, and credit spreads are extremely tight. These markets seem to be pricing in at a 70% to 80% chance of a soft landing — modest growth along with declining inflation and interest rates. I believe the odds are a lot lower than that. In the meantime, there seems to be an enormous focus, too much so, on monthly inflation data and modest changes to interest rates. But the die may be cast — interest rates looking out a year or two may be predetermined by all of the factors I mentioned above. Small changes in interest rates today may have less impact on inflation in the future than many people believe.

Therefore, we are prepared for a very broad range of interest rates, from 2% to 8% or even more, with equally wide-ranging economic outcomes — from strong economic growth with moderate inflation (in this case, higher interest rates would result from higher demand for capital) to a recession with inflation; i.e., stagflation. Economically, the worst-case scenario would be stagflation, which would not only come with higher interest rates but also with higher credit losses, lower business volumes and more difficult markets. Under these many different scenarios, our company would continue to perform at least okay. Importantly, being prepared means we can continue to help our clients no matter what the future portends.

The mini banking crisis of 2023 is over, but beware of higher rates and recession — not just for banks but for the whole economy.

When we purchased First Republic in May 2023 following the failure of two other regional banks, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank, we thought that the current banking crisis was over. Only these three banks were offsides in having the toxic combination of extreme interest rate exposure, large unrealized losses in the held-to-maturity (HTM) portfolio and highly concentrated deposits. Most of the other regional banks did not have these problems. However, we stipulated that the crisis was over provided that interest rates didn’t go up dramatically and we didn’t experience a serious recession. If long-end rates go up over 6% and this increase is accompanied by a recession, there will be plenty of stress — not just in the banking system but with leveraged companies and others. Remember, a simple 2 percentage point increase in rates essentially reduced the value of most financial assets by 20%, and certain real estate assets, specifically office real estate, may be worth even less due to the effects of recession and higher vacancies. Also remember that credit spreads tend to widen, sometimes dramatically, in a recession.

We seek to be engaged globally and carefully manage complex countries and geopolitical issues.

JPMorgan Chase does business in more than 100 countries, and we have people on the ground in over 60 countries. In almost all those locations, we do research on their economy, their markets and their companies; we bank their government institutions and their companies; and we bank multinational corporations, including the U.S. multinational corporations within their borders. This is a critical role — not only in helping those countries grow and improve but also in expanding the global economy.

Many of these countries are quite complex with different laws, customs and regulations. We are occasionally asked why we bank certain companies and even certain countries, particularly when countries have some laws and customs that are counter to many of the values held in the United States. Here’s why:

The U.S. government sets foreign policy. And when it does, we salute. Wherever we do business, we follow the law of the United States, as it applies in that country (in addition to the laws of the country itself), in all respects. Think of trade rules, sanctions, anti-money laundering and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, among others. By and large, these things help improve those countries. In most cases, the U.S. government does not want us to leave because it agrees, generally, that the engagement of American business enhances our relationships with other countries and helps those countries themselves.
Engagement makes the world a better place. We all should want the world to continue to improve. Isolation and lack of engagement do not accomplish that goal. While we believe that it makes sense for the United States to push for constant improvement around the world — from advocating for human rights to fighting corruption — this is rarely accomplished through coercion, and, in fact, is enhanced by engagement.
We need to be prepared for emerging challenges and position ourselves to understand them. We created a new role — Head of Asia Pacific Policy and Strategic Competitiveness — to focus specifically on key policy issues critical to the firm’s (and, in fact, the country’s) competitiveness, such as trade restrictions, supply chains and infrastructure. We also created a new strategic security forum to focus on emerging and evolving risks, including trade wars, pandemics, cybersecurity and actual wars, to name just a few.

OUR EXTENSIVE COMMUNITY OUTREACH EFFORTS, INCLUDING DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

JPMorgan Chase makes an extraordinary effort as part of our “normal” day-to-day outreach to engage with individual clients, small and midsized businesses, large and multinational firms, government officials, regulators and the press in cities all around the world. This dialogue is part of the normal course of business but it is also part of building trust and putting down roots in a community.

We believe that companies, and banks in particular, must earn the trust of the communities and countries in which they operate. We believe — and we are unashamed about this — that it is our obligation to help lift up the communities and countries in which we do business. We believe that doing so enhances business and the general economic well-being of those communities and countries and also enhances long-term shareholder value. JPMorgan Chase thrives when communities thrive.

This approach is integral to what we do, in great scale, around the world — and it works. We are quite clear that whether our efforts are inspired by the goodness of our hearts (as philanthropy or venture-type investing) or good business, we try to measure the actual outcomes.

It’s also interesting to point out that many of our efforts were spawned from our work around Advancing Black Pathways, Military and Veterans Affairs, and our work in Detroit. While we’ve banked Detroit for more than 90 years, our $200 million investment in its economic recovery over the last decade demonstrated that investing in communities is a smart business strategy. We are one of the largest banks in Detroit, from consumer banking to investment banking, and it’s quite clear that not only did our efforts help Detroit, but they also helped us gain market share. The extent of Detroit’s remarkable recovery was recently highlighted when Moody’s upgraded the city’s credit rating to investment grade — an extraordinary achievement just over 10 years after the city filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

For JPMorgan Chase, Detroit was an incubator for developing models that help us hone how we deploy our business resources, philanthropic capital, skilled volunteerism, and low-cost loans and equity investments, as well as how we identify top talent to drive successful business and societal improvements. I hope that, as shareholders, you are proud of our focus on promoting opportunity for all, both within and outside our organization, which includes economic opportunity. Some of our initiatives are listed below.

Business Resource Groups. To deepen our culture of inclusion in the workplace, we have 10 Business Resource Groups (BRG) across the company to connect more than 160,000 participating employees around common interests, as well as to foster networking and camaraderie. Groups welcome anyone — allies and those with shared affinities alike. For example, some of our largest BRGs are Access Ability (employees with disabilities and caregivers), Adelante (Hispanic and Latino employees), BOLD (Black employees), NextGen (early career professionals), PRIDE (LGBTQ+ employees) and Women on the Move.
Women on the Move. At JPMorgan Chase, they sure are! Women represent 28% of our firm’s senior leadership globally. In fact, our major lines of business — CCB, AWM and CIB, which would be among Fortune 1000 companies on their own — are all run by women (one with a co-head who is male). More than 10 years ago, a handful of senior women at the company, on their own, started this global, firmwide, internally focused organization called Women on the Move. It was so successful that we expanded the initiative beyond the company; it now empowers clients and consumers, as well as women employees and their allies, to build their careers, grow their businesses and improve their financial health. The Women on the Move BRG has more than 70,000 employees globally.
Advancing Black Pathways. This comprehensive program, which just reached the five-year mark, focuses on strengthening the economic foundation of Black communities because we know that opportunity is not always created equally. The program does so by, among other accomplishments, helping to diversify our talent pipeline, providing opportunities for Black individuals to enter the workforce and gain valuable experience, and investing in the financial success of Black Americans through a focus on financial health, homeownership and entrepreneurship. An important part of the program’s work is achieved through our investment in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). We now partner with 18 schools across the United States to boost recruitment connections, expand career pathways for Black students and other students, and support their long-term development and financial health. As a measure of the program’s success, in four years we have made nearly 400 hires into summer and full-time analyst and associate roles at the firm.
Military and Veterans Affairs. This firmwide effort sponsors recruitment, mentorship and development programs to support the military members and veterans working at JPMorgan Chase. Back in 2011, we joined with 10 other companies to launch the Veteran Jobs Mission (VJM), whose membership has since grown to more than 300 companies representing various industries across the United States and has hired over 900,000 veterans and military spouses. In 2023, VJM announced the creation of its Advisory Board, which is composed of 14 corporate leaders, to provide strategic direction and oversight of VJM as it continues to expand its commitment to support economic opportunities for veterans and military spouses, including its goal to hire 2 million veterans and 200,000 military spouses by 2030. JPMorgan Chase alone has hired in excess of 18,000 veterans since 2011 and currently employs more than 3,100 military spouses.
Creating opportunity for people with disabilities. The firm’s Office of Disability Inclusion continues to lead strategy and initiatives aimed at advancing economic opportunity for people with disabilities. In 2023, we joined lawmakers and business leaders in Washington, D.C., to show support for passage of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Savings Penalty Elimination Act. Modernizing the SSI program, by updating asset limits for the first time in nearly 40 years, would allow millions of people with disabilities who receive SSI benefits the opportunity to build their savings without putting their essential benefits at risk. We also provided business coaching to more than 370 entrepreneurs with disabilities.
Virtual call centers. When we sought to expand our customer service specialists program across the United States, we turned to Detroit, launching our first virtual call center in 2022. Investments in Detroit’s workforce development infrastructure helped us hire 90 virtual customer service specialists for a program that has outperformed many of our traditional call centers around the world. Following this success, we expanded our hiring efforts and this virtual program to Baltimore to create new jobs that jump-start careers. And now we’re evaluating the possibility of expanding even further.
Entrepreneurs of Color Fund. A critical challenge we have seen in so many communities is that traditional lending standards render too many entrepreneurs — particularly entrepreneurs of color and those serving these communities — ineligible for credit. In response, we helped launch the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund (EOCF) in Detroit, a lending program designed to help aspiring small business owners gain access to critical resources needed for growth that are often not equitably available — capital, technical assistance and mentorship, among others. These challenges aren’t unique to Detroit so we worked with community development financial institutions to replicate the EOCF program in 10 markets across the United States in 2023, deploying more than 2,900 loans and $176 million in capital to underserved entrepreneurs across the country.
Senior business consultants. To help entrepreneurs and small businesses make the transition from community lending to accessing capital from traditional financial institutions, we created a new job — senior business consultant — to provide support. Senior business consultants in branches that focus on underserved communities offer coaching and help business owners with everything from navigating access to credit to managing cash flow to generating effective marketing. Since 2020, these consultants have mentored more than 5,500 business owners, helping them improve their operations, grow revenue and network with others in the local business community.
Advancing Cities The organizing principles that define the business and community investments we make and how we best achieve an overall impact in local economies were heavily influenced by our experience in Detroit. Seeing Detroit’s comeback begin to take shape several years ago, we created Advancing Cities to replicate this model for large-scale investments to other cities around the world. From San Francisco to Paris to Greater Washington, D.C., we’ve applied what we learned in Detroit to communities where conditions are opportune for success and require deeper investments — where community, civic and business leaders have come together to solve problems and get results.
JPMorgan Chase Service Corps. Ten years ago, we launched the JPMorgan Chase Service Corps to strengthen the capacity-building of nonprofit partners. We brought employees from around the world to Detroit to assist with its recovery — from creating a scoring model for a nonprofit to helping prioritize neighborhoods for development funding to devising an implementation plan for an integrated talent management system. Since that time, the Service Corps has expanded, with more than 1,500 JPMorgan Chase employees contributing 100,000 hours to support over 300 nonprofits globally.
Community Centers/Branches and Community Managers. A local bank branch, especially in a low-income neighborhood, can be successful only when it fits the community’s needs. That is why over the last several years we have shifted our approach to how we offer access to financial health education, as well as low-cost products and services to help build wealth. Since 2019, we have opened 16 Community Center branches, often in areas with larger Black, Hispanic or Latino populations, and have plans to open three more by the end of 2024. These branches have more space to host grassroots community events, small business mentoring sessions and financial health seminars, which have been well-attended — to date, over 400,000 people have taken advantage of the financial education seminars. In each of these Community Center branches, we hired a Community Manager (who acts as a local ambassador) to build relationships with community leaders, nonprofits and small businesses. The Community Manager concept and practice have become so successful that we have also placed these managers in many of our traditional branches in underserved communities. We now have 149 Community Managers throughout our branch network.
Work skills development. Detroit showed us how talent in communities is often overlooked. We saw this in the early days of our investment when we visited our partners at Focus: HOPE, a training program designed to help Detroiters develop skills for high-demand jobs. Quickly, it became clear that the training and education system in Detroit was disconnected from employers and their talent needs. By investing in programs like Focus: HOPE, we have been able to help bridge local skills gaps by training people for in-demand jobs in communities like Dallas, Miami and Washington, D.C. Between 2019 and 2023, we supported more than 2 million people through our extensive learning and career programming around the world.
Increasing our rural investment. We are proud to be the only bank with branches in all 48 contiguous states, which include many rural communities. Nearly 17 million consumers living in rural areas hold over $100 billion in deposits with us and $175 billion in loans. We are also a leading wholesale lender in these communities, helping to fuel local economies through relationships with local companies, governments, hospitals and universities. Since 2019, we have made material progress in extending our footprint to reach more rural Americans, including expanding our branch network into 13 new states with large rural populations. Now we are raising the bar. With our new strategy, we have a goal to have a branch available to serve 50% of a state’s population within an acceptable driving distance, including in heavily rural states such as Alabama and Iowa. This focus is part of our recently announced plan to build an additional 500 branches and hire 3,500 employees over the next three years. Through this expansion, we will partner across lines of business and our Corporate Responsibility organization to help advance inclusive economic growth and bring the full force of the firm to America’s heartland.

We’ve nearly completed our five-year, $30 billion Racial Equity Commitment — it will now become a permanent part of our business.

What began in 2020 as a five-year, $30 billion commitment is now transforming into a consistent business practice for our lines of business in support of Black, Hispanic, Latino and other underserved communities. By the end of 2023, we reported over $30 billion in progress toward our original goal. However, our focus is not on how much money is deployed — but on long-term impact and outcomes. And going forward, these programs will be embedded in our business-as-usual operating system.

Affordable rental housing. Through our Affordable Housing Preservation program, we approved program funding to date of approximately $21 billion in loans to incentivize the preservation of over 190,000 affordable housing rental units across the United States. Additionally, we financed approximately $5 billion for the construction and rehabilitation of affordable rental housing.
Homeownership. In 2023, we expanded our $5,000 Chase Homebuyer Grant program to include over 15,000 majority Black, Hispanic and Latino communities — and in January 2024, we increased our grant amount to $7,500 in select markets. Since our grant program began in 2021, we have provided about 8,600 grants totaling $43 million. We also have provided home purchase and refinance loans in 2023 worth over $4.6 billion for more than 14,000 Black, Hispanic and Latino households across the economic spectrum.
Small business. The Business Card Special Purpose Credit Program, launched in January 2023, has provided over 10,900 cards, totaling over $43 million in available credit lines to underserved entrepreneurs and communities across the United States.
Supplier diversity. In 2023, our firm spent approximately $2.3 billion directly with diverse suppliers — an increase of 10% over 2022. As a part of our racial equity commitment, over $450 million was spent in 2023 with more than 190 Black-, Hispanic- and Latino-owned businesses.
Minority depository institutions and community development financial institutions. To date, we have invested more than $110 million in equity in diverse financial institutions and provided over $260 million in incremental financing to community development financial institutions to support communities that lack access to traditional financing. JPMorgan Chase also helped these institutions build their capacity so they can provide a greater number of critical services like mortgages and small business loans.

We’re thoughtfully continuing our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Of course, JPMorgan Chase will conform as the laws evolve. We will scour our programs, our words and our actions to make sure they comply.

That said, we think all the efforts mentioned above will remain largely unchanged. And, in fact, around the world, cities and communities where we do business applaud these efforts. We also believe our initiatives make us a more inclusive company and lead to more innovation, smarter decisions and better financial results for us and for the economy overall.

We are often asked in particular about “equity” and what that word means. To us, it means equal treatment, equal opportunity and equal access … not equal outcomes. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging and trying to bridge social and economic gaps, whether they be around wealth or health. We would like to provide a fair chance for everyone to succeed — regardless of their background. And we want to make sure everyone who works at our company feels welcome.

We want to articulate how we weigh in on social issues and what it means for our customers.

Before I comment about culture issues, I have a confession to make: I am a full-throated, red-blooded, patriotic, free-enterprise (properly regulated, of course) and free-market capitalist. Our company is frequently asked to take a position on an issue, rule or legislation that might be considered “cultural.” When that happens, we take a deep breath and study the matter. Many of the laws in question have many specific requirements, some of which you would agree with but not others. But we are being asked to support the entire law. In cases like these, we simply make our own statement that reflects our educated view and values; however, we do not give our voice to others.

We believe in the values of democracy, including freedom of speech and expression, and are staunchly against discrimination and hate. We have not turned away — and will not turn away — customers because of their political or religious affiliations nor would we tell customers how they should spend their money.

Our commitment to these ideals is also reflected in our employees. The talent at our firm is a vibrant mix of cultures, beliefs and backgrounds. We are, of course, fully committed to freedom of speech. There are things that you can say that would be permitted under freedom of speech but would not be allowed under our Code of Conduct. For example, we do not allow intimidation, threats or highly prejudicial behavior or speech. Our Code of Conduct clearly stipulates that certain statements and behavior, while allowed under freedom of speech, can lead to disciplinary action at our company — from being reprimanded to being fired.

WHAT WE LEARNED: A FIVE-POINT ACTION PLAN TO MOVE FORWARD ON THE CLIMATE CHALLENGE

In May 2023, we gathered with knowledgeable and influential people from the energy industry writ large to the government and financial services arena in Scottsdale, Arizona, for an action forum. The goal was to explore various aspects of the climate challenge and try to devise effective solutions that could help lead to meaningful progress. The climate challenge is immense and complex. Addressing it requires more than making simplistic statements and rules; rather, energy systems and global supply chains need to be transformed across virtually all industries. And there is also a deep need for new research and development. Energy systems and supply chains provide the foundation of the global economy and must be treated with care.

At the same time, the opportunity here is immense. The investment required to meet climate goals — estimated at over $5 trillion annually — could generate economywide growth and opportunity at a scale the world has not seen since the Industrial Revolution.

The task for industry, policymakers and finance is to help formulate solutions that support the transition to a low-carbon economy, balancing affordable, reliable access to energy with generating economic growth.

To find a way forward, we sought input from diverse stakeholders in pursuit of a North Star. In Scottsdale and in discussions with clients across industries about what’s needed to achieve a low-carbon economy, these five action steps and reforms were top of mind:

Supportive government policy and leadership to advance the transition. Policy that promotes favorable economic conditions to make the transition viable is a critical first step for clients. This includes government leadership via mandates, incentives or subsidies to support jobs and investment in the transition; actions on permitting and interconnection reform; and regulatory clarity and certainty, especially around long-term investments. As one vital example, current grid infrastructure is insufficient to accommodate the growth in renewables.
Public/private partnerships in scaling bankable projects. Scaling investments needs to happen both for commercially proven technologies (e.g., wind and solar) and for emerging technologies (e.g., green hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel and carbon capture). Developing “bankable” clean energy projects will require the application of smart financial tools, as well as further policy support. It will take public/private partnerships and innovation to create catalytic forms of capital that can step into these gaps, absorb first-mover risks and provide the necessary funding. The cost of capital is too high for some companies — and public funds ought to be deployed in a smart way that effectively attracts private capital.
Public education and engagement. Without question, clients told us that public commitment to and investment in energy-related infrastructure is one of the most important parts of combating the climate crisis and running their businesses. Supporting the buildout of energy-related infrastructure with speed and scale is critical. Public acceptance of building and advancing the infrastructure needed to meet climate goals is at the heart of progress. While the energy transition is poised to deliver benefits to communities across the world, securing acceptance and support to build clean energy infrastructure at scale is challenging. Access to job-creating renewable energy projects can help rural communities thrive by advancing local economies. Ensuring public support and social license to operate requires better engagement strategies, including widespread stakeholder education about the benefits of these technologies for local communities.
Communication about concrete successes. Across industries, market participants need to do a better job of celebrating and championing concrete successes and tangible milestones. This includes highlighting success stories around emerging technologies and the complex nature of the carbon transition. Stakeholders also should better convey the benefits of clean energy — across all technologies — to help combat misinformation and foster a more informed dialogue.
Work skills training. Businesses depend on healthy, thriving communities so the carbon transition needs to work for everyone. This includes helping to ensure that workers are trained in the skills for the future, such as through improved engineering schools and job training programs. Work across the entire supply chain is essential to moving at pace. As one example, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates we will need more than 70,000 additional electricians per year through 2031; it is currently unclear how the market will meet that demand. If the deployment of heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers accelerates, demand for electricians will be even higher. A concerted focus to train electricians can help the United States meet some of its climate goals while providing well-paying jobs that do not require a four-year college degree. Also, broadly speaking, businesses are in a better position to make investments with confidence when labor requirements across the value chain — from design and manufacturing to installation — are satisfied.

We recently reconsidered certain memberships.

JPMorgan Chase recently exited Climate Action 100+ and the Equator Principles. “Why?” we are asked. While we don’t necessarily disagree with some of the principles many organizations have, we make our own business decisions. We think we have some of the best-in-class environmental, social and risk standards because we have invested in our own in-house experts and matured our own risk management processes over the years. As a result, we are going to go our own way and make our own independent decisions, gathering the best learnings of experts in the field, and, of course, we will follow all legal requirements.

We are engaged but recognize our role: three more important points.

First, everyone should understand that conquering the climate problem needs proper government action, particularly around taxes, permitting, grids, infrastructure building and proper coordination of policies — we are not there yet. Second, there is no known technology that can fill the gap between our “aspirations” and the current trajectory of the world. We hope and believe that this will be found (for example, through carbon capture, improved batteries, hydrogen or other measures). This new technology will also require proper government research and development funding, as the effort cannot be accomplished by private enterprise alone. And third, we are going to use the word “commitment” much more reservedly in the future, clearly differentiating between aspirations we are actively striving toward and binding commitments.

For JPMorgan Chase to play the right role in tackling the climate challenge, we have organized a special group around the green economy and related infrastructure investment. This group will coordinate and inform our work across all established industry groups (from auto to real estate, energy, agriculture and others) and includes hundreds of employees devoted to these efforts.

POWERING ECONOMIC GROWTH IN FLORIDA

From Tallahassee to Miami and from Tampa to Palm Bay, JPMorgan Chase has been committed to Florida for more than 130 years and has enjoyed being the bank for all communities. Each year, we contribute billions of dollars to the economy, hire and train local residents, help to revitalize neighborhoods and remove barriers to opportunity for Floridians across the state. Our partnerships with businesses, nonprofits, government entities and community organizations have enabled us to drive sustainable impact and help them achieve their goals. We couldn’t be more proud to help make opportunity happen in Florida.

This year, we forged a relationship with Inter Miami CF, one of the most recognizable sports teams in the world. Through this partnership and the newly named Chase Stadium, we’re continuing to contribute to South Florida and its local communities. In Tampa, home to nearly 6,000 of our employees, we’re triggering an additional $210 million in economic activity and creating over 660 local construction jobs through the renovation of our Highland Oaks campus and downtown Tampa office. We’re proud that one-third of all Floridians do business with us through deposits, credit cards or a mortgage. Through each of our investments across the state, we’re ensuring that residents have the resources and tools they need to thrive.

Our support to government, higher education, healthcare and nonprofit organizations:

We serve over 150 government, higher education, healthcare and nonprofit clients throughout the state, and over the last five years, we have provided more than $20.2 billion in credit and capital to them.
Our clients range from the city of Jacksonville to the Orlando Utilities Commission, the University of South Florida, Broward Health and the District School Board of Pasco County — a decades-long client.
We are the lead treasury bank for the Wounded Warrior Project, one of the largest veteran service organizations in the United States. Headquartered in Jacksonville, the organization caters to wounded veterans and service members who served in the military on or after 9/11.

Our support to investment and middle-market banking clients:

Over the last five years, we have provided in excess of $318 billion in credit and capital to local clients, such as utility, technology and tourism companies.
We have more than 12,500 large and midsized clients across the state.

Our support to local financial firms:

Over the last five years, we have provided more than $24 billion in credit and capital for financial institutions, such as local banks, insurance companies, asset managers and securities firms.
We bank over 50 of Florida’s regional, midsized and community banks, helping them play an essential role in maintaining the state’s economy and serve local communities.

Our support to small business:

At the end of 2023, balances for loans extended to Florida’s small businesses totaled more than $1.2 billion — funds being used to help those businesses scale and grow, contribute to the economy and create local jobs.
Across the state, we have over 654,000 small business customers.
In 2023, our bankers and senior business consultants spent more than 375,000 hours advising and supporting Florida business owners.

Our support to consumer banking needs:

We operate 1,445 ATMs and 410 branches across the state.
In 2023, we supported more than 6.1 million customers with mortgages, auto loans and savings, checking and credit card accounts, giving JPMorgan Chase one of the largest consumer banking market shares in the state.
We managed more than $70 billion in investment and annuity assets for local clients.

Our business and community investments:

$3 million to The Miami Foundation’s Resilient 305: Building Prosperity Collaborative to increase access to quality jobs and develop small businesses through training, investments and capacity-building.
$1.6 million to the Community Justice Project, which empowers community-based legal advocates to help delay displacement and improve conditions for housing stability for renters across nine Florida counties.
A $1 million investment to Florida Memorial University, South Florida’s only HBCU, to help traditionally underresourced students pursue a career in technology.

Our support as a local employer:

We employ more than 14,000 residents throughout the state, including nearly 1,900 veterans and over 660 people with a criminal background who deserve a second chance.
In Florida, the average salary of our employees is more than $87,000 (plus a starting comprehensive annual benefits package worth nearly $17,600) compared with the statewide per capita income of nearly $40,300.

GIVING THE BANK REGULATORY AND SUPERVISORY PROCESS A SERIOUS REVIEW

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) was finished 14 years ago, and we believe it accomplished a lot of good things. But it’s been quite a while since then, and we’re still debating some very basic issues. It’s time to take a serious, hard, honest look at what has been done and what can be improved.

It’s good to remember that the United States has the best financial system in the world, with diversified, deep and experienced institutions, from banks, pension plans, hedge funds and private equity to individual investors. It has healthy public and private markets, transparency, rule of law and deep research. The best banking system in the world is a critical part of this, and, integrated with the overall financial system, is foundational to the proper allocation of capital, innovation and the fueling of America’s growth engine.

This is not about JPMorgan Chase — we believe we can manage through whatever is thrown our way. This is about the impact on all parts of the system — from smaller banks to larger regional banks that may not have the resources to handle all of these regulatory requirements. It’s also about the effect on the financial markets and the economy from the rapidly growing shadow banking system, as well as the ultimate impact on the customers, clients and communities we serve. This is about what’s right for the system.

The banking and financial system is innovative, dynamic and constantly changing.

The banking system is not static: There are startup banks, mergers, successful upstarts and fintech banks, and even Apple, which effectively acts as a bank — it holds money, moves money, lends money and so on. Nonbanks are competing with traditional banks, and, in general, this dynamism and churn are good for innovation and invention — with success and failure simply part of the robust process. Innovation runs across payments systems, budgeting, digital access, product extensions, risk and fraud prevention, and other services. Different institutions play different roles, and, importantly, small banks and big banks serve completely different strategic functions. Large banks bank multinational corporations around the world, make healthy markets, and wield technology and a product set that are the best in the world. A small bank simply cannot bank these same multinational governments and safely move the amount of money and securities that large banks do. Regional and community banks have exceptional local knowledge and presence and are critical in serving thousands of towns and certain geographies.

It is also important to recognize that the banking system as we know it is shrinking relative to private markets and fintech, which are growing and becoming increasingly competitive. And remember that many of these new players do not have the same transparency or need to abide by the extensive rules and regulations as traditional banks, even if they offer similar products — this often gives them significant advantage.

To deal with this fluid environment, banks of all sizes develop their own strategies, whether to specialize, expand geographically or embark on mergers and acquisitions. There are certain banking services where economies of scale are a competitive advantage, but not all banks need to become bigger to gain this benefit (there are many highly successful banks that are smaller). What is clear is that banks should be allowed to pursue their individual strategies, including mergers and acquisitions, as they see fit. Overall, this process should be allowed to happen — it’s part of the natural and healthy course of capitalism — and it can be done without harming the American taxpayer or economy.

While we all want a strong banking and financial system, we should step back and assess how all the regulatory steps we have taken measure up against the goals we all share. Since Dodd-Frank was signed into law in 2010, thousands of rules and reporting requirements written by 10+ different regulatory bodies in the United States alone have been added. And it would probably be an understatement to say that some are duplicative, inconsistent, procyclical, contradictory, extremely costly, and unnecessarily painful for both banks and regulators. Many of the rules have unintended consequences that are not desirable and have negative impacts, such as increasing the cost of credit for consumers (hurting lower-income Americans the most).

The whole process, including the Basel III endgame, could be much more productive, streamlined, economical, efficient and safe.

Both regulators and banks should want the same thing — a healthy banking system, serving its clients and striving for continuous improvement. We all should also want the enormous benefits that would come from good collaboration between regulators and bank management teams and boards.

Over time, these relationships have deteriorated, and, again, are increasingly less constructive. There is little real collaboration between practitioners — the banks — and regulators, who generally have not been practitioners in business. While we acknowledge the dedication of regulators who work with banks on a daily basis, management teams across the industry are putting in a disproportionate amount of time addressing requests for extra details, documentation and processes that extend far beyond the actual rules — and distract both regulators and management from more critical work. We should be more focused on the truly important risks for the safety of the system. And unfortunately, without collaboration and sufficient analysis, it is hard to be confident that regulation will accomplish desired outcomes without undesirable consequences. Instead of constantly improving the system, we may be making it worse. A few additional points:

The Basel III endgame disadvantages American banks. The Basel III endgame has been 10 years in the making, and it still has not been completed. In my view, many of the rules are flawed and poorly calibrated. If the Basel III endgame were implemented in its current form, it would hamper American banks: As proposed, it would increase our firm’s required capital by 25%, making our requirement 30% higher than it would be under the equivalent European Union proposal. That means for every loan and asset financed in the United States by a major American bank, that bank would have to hold 30% more capital than any international competitor. The proposed regulations would also damage market making (see the following section). There are many other flaws but suffice it to say that much of the work being done today to analyze the effects should have been done before the proposed rulemaking. One of the single most important lessons from the great financial crisis is that there is enormous value to having a bank that is well-managed and has diverse revenue sources. Yet regulation since then both punishes consolidation and diversification — and punishes performance — through many features of the GSIB surcharge.
Built over many years, the framework is now full of duplication. The following is only a partial list: American gold-plating and conceptual inconsistencies among Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR), recovery and resolution plans, liquidity requirements, global systemically important bank (GSIB) requirements, and safety and soundness principles. The many overlapping rules contribute to the bureaucracy that generates an extraordinary amount of make-work (an 80,000-page CCAR and shockingly another, coincidentally, 80,000-page recovery and resolution plan).
The new rules do virtually nothing to fix what caused the failure of SVB and First Republic. For example, they don’t improve certain liquidity requirements, limit HTM accounting or reduce allowable interest rate exposure.
The current regulatory approach to liquidity might simply run counter to the stated intent. Regulations should recognize the value and importance of lending and borrowing against good collateral and using central bank resources, such as the discount window. Adhering to current liquidity requirements permanently ties up good liquidity in a way that makes the system more fragile and more risky.
It is not clear what the full intent of the Basel III endgame was – it will have unintended consequences. Without real analysis of expected outcomes, additional regulation will likely reduce the number of banks offering certain services and increase costs for all market participants and activity, including loans, market making and hedging (by farmers, airlines and countries, among others). And new rules might even increase consolidation as companies race to achieve economies of scale in certain products and services.

Unfortunately, some recent regulations are ending up in court. You can imagine that no one wants to sue their regulators. Banks would not sue if they did not think they were right — or if they thought they had any other recourse — which they effectively do not. This is definitely not what anyone should want. A more constructive relationship with regulators would reduce confusion and uncertainty and would lead to better outcomes for banks, their shareholders, and their clients, customers and communities.

Collaboration between banks and regulators could improve the use of resources and create better outcomes.

True collaboration could dramatically improve the banking system. For example:

Redirect enormous resources from things that don’t matter to things that do. As mentioned, it takes 80,000 pages to describe a CCAR test and 80,000 pages to detail recovery and resolution. The talent and resources at the banks and regulators could be better used elsewhere. Such overload is distracting and takes your eye off the ball on real, emerging risks, including China, trade, payment systems and cybersecurity, among others.
Reduce bureaucratic processes that provoke a tendency to herd mentality. For example, CCAR is just a point-in-time stress test, and it can lull you into a false sense of security — for reference, we do more than 100 stress tests each week. On interest rate exposure, focusing on the documentation of details may stop you from thinking about big interest rate exposure. Sometimes analyzing “what ifs” and fat tail risks is better than excessive and rigid models and documentations.
Examine risks outside the regulatory system that are rarely analyzed and largely unaddressed. These risks include data and privacy, as well as consumer banking and payment systems, which are growing fast in the unregulated market. In addition, there are potential risks from private credit markets (which I talk about later in this section).
Let’s imagine what’s possible with real collaboration. Working together, we can improve how the FDIC manages failing institutions, how to limit contagion and restore confidence to depositors, how liquidity requirements can create more flexible funding for banks under stress, how the banking and Federal Reserve’s payment system can become more interoperable, how clearinghouse risk can be reduced, how stress tests can protect the system from a wider variety of outcomes, how costs and therefore consumer costs can be reduced (not increased), how anti-money laundering requirements can be simplified and improved at the same time, and how financial products can be brought to the unbanked. We can fix the housing and mortgage markets. For example, mortgage regulations around origination, servicing and securitization could be simplified, without increasing risk, in a way that would reduce the average mortgage by 70 or 80 basis points. The Urban Institute estimates that a reduction like this would increase mortgage originations by 1 million per year and help lower-income households, in particular, buy their first home, thereby starting them on the best way to build household net worth. There are many more things that can be improved — and we really should start working on them.

We need a detailed review and probably a complete revamp.

I know this might be wishful thinking, but now would be a good time to step back and have a thorough and candid review of the thousands of new rules passed since Dodd-Frank. After this review, we should ask what is it that we really want: Do we want to try to eliminate the possibility of bank runs? Do we want to change and create liquidity rules that would essentially back most uninsured deposits? Do we want the mortgage business and leveraged lending business to be inside or outside the banking system? Do we want products that are inside and outside the banking system to be regulated the same way? Do we want to reasonably give smaller banks a leg up in purchasing a failing bank? And while Dodd-Frank did some good things, shouldn’t we take a look at the huge overlapping jurisdictions of various regulators? This overlap creates difficulties, not only for banks, but for the regulators, too. Any and all of this is achievable, and, I believe, could be accomplished with simpler rules and guidelines and without stifling our critical banking system.

PROTECTING THE ESSENTIAL ROLE OF MARKET MAKING (TRADING)

Before we discuss market making and financial markets, readers should understand that market making occurs in almost all businesses. There are healthy markets in farm animals, foreign products, commodities, energy, logistics, healthcare and so on. Healthy markets increase customer choice and reduce cost. They almost always involve holding inventory and taking some risk, which is simply a part of the process. America’s financial markets are the biggest in the world — U.S. public debt and equity markets total $137 trillion, constituting the biggest “market” in the world, and are larger than America’s gross domestic product (GDP) of $27 trillion.

Market participants are not “Wall Street.” They are large and small, mainly sophisticated, global investors (pension plans, mutual funds, governments and individuals) representing retirees, veterans, individuals, unions, federal workers and others. They all benefit from our efficient, low-cost and transparent markets.

Some regulators seem to think that market making is a speculative, hedge fund-like activity — and this thinking is what might be leading them to constantly increase capital requirements. The proposed capital rules could fundamentally alter market-making activities that are critical to a thriving economy, particularly in difficult markets when market making is even more important . The new rules would raise capital requirements by 50% for major banks — which could undermine market stability, make banking services costlier and less accessible, and push even more activity to a less regulated banking system.

Our financial system and markets are the best in the world and benefit ALL participants; exceptionally good market making in the secondary market makes our primary markets the best in the world.

We should recognize that the United States has the biggest, deepest and most liquid capital markets in the world. For these markets to function, it is critical for transparency and liquidity to be in the secondary market . Market making provides this, promoting the flow of capital to real economy investments and supporting all sectors of the economy, including companies, state and local governments, universities, hospitals, pension plans and overall job creation. Without market making in the secondary market, it would be extremely difficult for companies to raise capital through the primary market — equity and debt offerings — which have totaled approximately $3.6 trillion on average over the past few years. The incredible strength of these markets enables companies of all sizes to grow and expand especially during times of volatility and stress. It also enables consumers to access cheaper credit and governments (local, state and federal) to reduce their borrowing costs.

JPMorgan Chase spends $700 million per year in extensive research coverage of nearly 5,200 companies across 83 countries. This massive effort continuously educates investors and decision makers around the world and often leads to improved governance and management. It also critically complements the firm’s market-making activities and further promotes transparency, enabling investors to make thoughtful choices around investing in capital markets.

I would also like our shareholders to know that our market making is backed by approximately $7 billion in support expenses, including over $2 billion in technology spend alone each year. This investment allows us to maintain global trading systems and constantly improve upon risk management and efficiency.

JPMorgan Chase deploys approximately $70 billion in capital to maintain our Markets franchise. This capital supports $500 billion in securities inventory (largely hedged) — and this inventory allows us to buy and sell $2 trillion (notional) in securities daily for our clients.

Market making entails risk but is not particularly speculative.

The main objective of market makers is to continuously quote prices and diligently manage an inventory to transact at those prices, which includes assuming certain risks to support heavy volumes and orderly trading. Market makers have a moral obligation to try to make markets in good times and in bad. Part of our brand promise is to stand ready as the willing buyer and seller. In this, we have never failed. In addition, in most cases regarding government debt, where we serve as a government securities dealer, we are legally obligated to make markets. This constant visibility into prices provided by market makers fosters investor confidence, keeps fees low and promotes economic growth by attracting more investors.

Many large market participants — for example, hedge funds and high-frequency traders, among others — have no obligation to make markets. In fact, many of these market participants often “step out” of the markets and dramatically reduce liquidity specifically when market conditions are difficult.

Market making is not particularly speculative since market makers generally hedge their positions, as you will see from some real life examples of the economics and risks. We earn revenue of approximately $100 million on a typical day. In the average year, the total is nearly $30 billion. On our $2 trillion in notional daily trading, this amounts to only one hundredth of a cent charged to the investor for these services — an extraordinarily low cost compared with any other market in the world.

Now let’s take a look at the actual risk and results versus the hypothetical risk and results. The hypothetical global market shock of the CCAR stress test has us losing $18 billion in a single day and never recovering any of it. Let’s compare that to actual losses under real, actual market stress.

Now consider these historical data points: First, over the last 10 years, the firm’s market-making business has never had a quarterly loss and has lost money on only 30 trading days. These loss days represent only 1% of total trading days, and the average loss on those days was $90 million. Second, when markets completely collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic (from March 2 through March 31, 2020, the stock market fell 16%, and bond spreads gapped out dramatically), J.P. Morgan’s market-making activities made money every day prior to the Federal Reserve’s major interventions, which stabilized the markets. During that entire month, we lost money on only two days but made $2.5 billion in Markets revenue for the month. And third, in the worst quarter ever in the markets following the 2008 failure of Lehman Brothers, we lost $1.7 billion, but we made $5.6 billion in Markets revenue for the full year. The firm as a whole did not lose money in any quarter that year. In 2009, there was a complete recovery in Markets, and we made $22 billion in Markets revenue.

You can see that our actual performance under extreme stress isn’t even close to the hypothetical losses of the stress test.

Another major fallacy is that derivatives are objects of financial destruction. In reality, derivatives are an essential part of managing financial risk and are used by investors, corporations, farmers, businesses, countries, governments and others to manage their risks. And more than 85% of derivatives are fairly basic forms of foreign exchange or interest rate swaps.

One last fallacy is that the repo markets are all about speculation. While it’s true that repo is used by certain investors to leverage up their positions, about 75% of repo is essential to normal money market functioning, i.e., is done by broker-dealers financing their actual inventory positions, money market funds investing their cash backed by highly rated collateral and clients hedging their positions.

Market makers add confidence, liquidity and transparency to U.S. capital markets — market making helps stabilize markets and can reduce volatility.

In addition, more liquidity, not less liquidity, will be needed to maintain market stability. Large banks keep an inventory of securities they can deploy in times of stress to help soothe markets; however, with the implementation of new regulations, banks now hold 70% as much inventory in securities as they did before the 2008 financial crisis, while the total size of the market has almost tripled. Higher capital requirements will accelerate this trend even further, impacting banks’ ability to deliver support to clients and markets in times when it is needed the most.

Washington’s Basel III endgame proposal damages market making, hurts Americans and drives activity to less transparent, less regulated markets.

If this proposal is enacted as drafted:

Everyday consumer goods could be impacted. Households contending with inflation could also feel the effects of higher capital requirements on market-making activities when they shop. From beverage companies that need to manage aluminum costs to farms that need to protect against environmental risks, if the cost of hedging those risks increases, it could be reflected in what consumers pay for everything from a can of soda to meat products.
Mortgages and small business loans will be more expensive. Consumers seeking a mortgage — including first-time homebuyers and historically underserved, low- to moderate-income borrowers with smaller down payments — will face higher interest rates or will have a tougher time accessing one. This will occur not only because the cost of originating and holding these loans is higher but also because the cost of securitizing them will rise for banks, nonbanks and government agencies. Not only that, but the proposal will likely lead to reductions in the size of unfunded credit card lines, which will put pressure on FICO scores and thereby make it more difficult for some people to access other forms of retail credit such as mortgages. Again, this will have the greatest impact on low- to moderate-income borrowers who rely most heavily on credit cards for day-to-day spending and to build their credit history. It could even be argued that existing regulations go too far and that there is an opportunity to help underserved communities by dialing down regulations that lead to higher borrowing costs. This should be studied and the pros and cons analyzed. The same can be said for small business loans, which will become more expensive and less accessible.
Saving for retirement or college will be harder. The cost of products that families count on to save for retirement or college will go up as a result of this proposal. Asset managers, money market funds and pension funds all buy, sell and safekeep securities and other financial instruments for American investors. Under the proposed rules, the cost of banking products used on behalf of clients each day — including brokerage, advisory, clearing and custody services — will go up and feed through to customers. That will lead to lower returns on retirement accounts, college funds and other long-term savings.
Government infrastructure projects and corporate development will become more expensive. Federal, state and local governments, as well as corporations and other institutions, rely on large banks for access to U.S. capital markets to fund development. If accessing capital markets becomes more expensive, it will have a ripple effect on the hiring of American workers, investment in research and development, and funding to build hospitals, roads and bridges, including the planned infrastructure projects from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

More market activity will move to unregulated institutions, out of sight from regulators and without the same level of consumer protections that Americans expect from their banks. Other market participants that don’t have holistic client relationships are less likely to provide liquidity to help stabilize markets.

In volatile times, banks have been able to intermediate to help their clients and to work with the regulators. With new regulations, they may be less able to do so. There have been several times in the past few years where banks had ample liquidity and capital but were unable to rapidly increase their intermediation in the markets due to very rigid liquidity and capital requirements. Finally, the proposed rules increase the chance that the Federal Reserve will have to step in again — and this is not something they should want to do on a regular basis but only in an extreme emergency.

Staying Competitive in the Shrinking Public Markets

In previous letters, I have described the diminishing role of public companies in the American financial system. From their peak in 1996 at 7,300, U.S. public companies now total 4,300 — the total should have grown dramatically, not shrunk. Meanwhile, the number of private U.S. companies backed by private equity firms — which does not include the rising number of companies owned by sovereign wealth funds and family offices — has grown from 1,900 to 11,200 over the last two decades. This trend is serious and may very well increase with more regulation and litigation coming. Along with a frank assessment of the regulation landscape, we really need to consider: Is this the outcome we want?

There are good reasons for private markets, and some good outcomes result from them. For example, companies can stay private longer if they wish and raise more and different types of capital without going to the public markets. However, taking a wider view, I fear we may be driving companies from the public markets. The reasons are complex and may include factors such as intensified reporting requirements (including investors’ growing needs for environmental, social and governance information), higher litigation expenses, costly regulations, cookie-cutter board governance, shareholder activism, less compensation flexibility, less capital flexibility, heightened public scrutiny and the relentless pressure of quarterly earnings.

Along with the universal proxy — which makes it easier to put poorly qualified directors on a board — the pressures to retreat from the public market are mounting. In addition, corporate governance principles are becoming more and more templated and formulaic, a negative trend. For example, proxy advisors may automatically judge directors unfavorably if they have a long tenure on the board, without a fair assessment of their actual contributions or experience. Another example is the constant battle by some proxy advisors who try to split the chairman and CEO role when there is no evidence this makes a company better off — in fact, today, lead directors generally hold most of the authorities previously assigned to the chairman. The governance of major corporations is evolving away from guidance by governance principles that focus on a company’s relationship to long-term economic value toward a bureaucratic compliance exercise. Good corporate governance is critical, and a little common sense would go a long way.

THE PRESSURE OF QUARTERLY EARNINGS COMPOUNDED BY BAD ACCOUNTING AND BAD DECISIONS

There is something very positive about detailed and disciplined quarterly financial and operating reporting. But company CEOs and boards of directors should resist the undue pressure of quarterly earnings, and it is clearly somewhat their fault when they don’t. However, it is naïve to think that the pressure doesn’t exist because companies that “disappoint” can face extensive criticism, particularly those with a new or young CEO. It’s possible for companies to take short-term actions to increase earnings, such as selling more product cheaply at the end of a quarter, cutting certain investments that may be terrific but can show accounting losses in the first year or two, or just deploying more aggressive accounting methods at times. Once shortcuts like this begin, people all over the company understand that it is okay to “stretch” to meet your numbers. This could put you on a treadmill to ruin. Obviously, a company should not resort to these tactics, but it does happen in the public markets — and it’s probably less likely in the private markets.

THE HIJACKING OF ANNUAL SHAREHOLDER MEETINGS

One of the reasons it is less desirable to be a public company is because of the spiraling frivolousness of the annual shareholder meeting, which has devolved into mostly a showcase of grandstanding and competing special interest groups. We should treat shareholders with tremendous respect — and we do. At JPMorgan Chase, we are constantly talking with our investors — our directors, our lead director and our corporate governance experts visit most of our major investors whether they be direct owners or asset managers who manage the money for others. Meeting with your shareholders and investors is critical, but the annual shareholder meeting itself has become ineffective. We should try to come up with a far more constructive alternative.

THE UNDUE INFLUENCE OF PROXY ADVISORS

There are essentially two main proxy advisors in the United States. One is called Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), and the second is called Glass Lewis. These proxy advisors started out providing reams of data from companies to help their institutional investor clients vote on proxy matters (information on executive compensation, stock returns, detail on directors, policies and so on). However, they soon also began to provide advice on how shareholders should vote on proxy matters. And, in fact, institutional investors generally execute their voting on an ISS or Glass Lewis platform, which often includes a clear statement of the advisory service’s position.

I should also point out, because it may be relevant, that ISS is owned by Deutsche Boerse, a German company, and Glass Lewis is owned by Peloton Capital, a Canadian private equity firm. I question whether American corporate governance should be determined by for-profit international institutions that may have their own strong feelings about what constitutes good corporate governance.

While asset managers and institutional investors have a fiduciary responsibility to make their own decisions, it is increasingly clear that proxy advisors have undue influence.

Asset managers (who manage money on behalf of others) and institutional investors (e.g., pension plans and endowments) may rely on a variety of information sources to support their valuation decision-making process. While data and recommendations may form pieces of the information mosaic, their votes should ultimately be based on an independent application of their own voting guidelines and policies. To the extent they use recommendations from proxy advisors in their decision-making processes, they should disclose that they do so and should be satisfied that the information upon which they are relying is accurate and relevant. However, many companies would argue that this information is frequently not balanced, not representative of the full view and not accurate. In addition, companies complain that they often cannot get the data corrected, and, therefore, a vote may go uncorrected.

Almost all asset managers receive proxy advisor data and recommendations; while some asset managers vote completely independently of this information, the majority do not. Most asset managers have formed corporate governance or stewardship committees that are responsible for their voting, and these committee positions are often held not by portfolio managers and research analysts (i.e., the people buying and analyzing the individual securities) but by stewardship experts. While it is good to have stewardship experts, the reality is that many of these committees default large portions of what they do to proxy advisors and, more troubling, make it harder for actual portfolio managers to override this decision making.

Some have argued that it’s too hard and too expensive to review the large number of proxies and proxy proposals — this is both lazy and wrong. If issues are important to a company, they should be important to the shareholder — for the most part, only a handful of proposals are important to companies.

We are making enhancements to J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s proxy voting processes to amplify the role of portfolio managers and to address the perception of asset managers’ reliance on third-party advisor voting recommendations.

Enhancements to the firm’s internal proxy voting process will include:

More portfolio manager participation in proxy committee decision making. The firm has significantly expanded the representation of portfolio managers on its North American Proxy Committee in an effort to increase the diversity of viewpoints represented on the committee. As part of this change, and in recognition that portfolio managers, as fiduciaries, may differ in their views on how to vote on particular proposals depending on a mandate’s investment strategy and guidelines, we are broadening our capabilities to support voting results that may vary across our platform.
Diminished role of proxy advisor recommendations. J.P. Morgan Asset Management makes its own independent proxy voting decisions (based on deep fundamental research) and stands behind the depth and rigor of its processes and historical information advantage. In most cases, the firm will only use proxy advisory firms for research, data and technical mechanics of vote transmission and not for outsourced recommendations. By the end of 2024, J.P. Morgan Asset Management generally will have eliminated third-party proxy advisor voting recommendations from its internally developed voting systems. Additionally, the firm will work with third-party proxy voting advisors to remove their voting recommendations from research reports they provide to J.P. Morgan Asset Management by the 2025 proxy season.
Other enhancements. We are working to give a company and its management even greater access to the ultimate decision makers; to raise critical issues to a company as early as possible in a constructive and proactive way; and to be willing to tell companies how we have voted once our decision is made rather than waiting until votes are finally counted.

Taken together, these steps are designed to respond to a growing perception (and, I believe, reality) that the asset management industry generally places undue reliance on proxy advisors in how proxies are voted. We believe these actions will strengthen our relationships with our clients and with companies while helping to build trust between shareholders, investors and companies.

THE BENEFITS AND RISKS OF PRIVATE CREDIT

I have already mentioned some of the benefits of private credit, and I’ll now mention some more. Many people in the private credit arena are very smart and creative and want to help the companies they invest in navigate through market shoals. They can move quickly, discreetly and flexibly. Most generally understand that bad accounting drives bad decisions, and their goal is to make the right decisions for the future of the company.

On the other hand, not all players are that good. And problems in the private credit market caused by the bad players can leak onto the good ones, even though private credit money is locked up for years. If investors feel mistreated, they will cry foul, and the government will respond by putting a laser focus on the business. It’s a reasonable assumption that at some point regulations will focus on the private markets as they do on the public markets.

This scrutiny will include a look at how private credit values its assets, which isn’t as transparent as public market valuations. In addition, private market loans commonly lack liquidity in the secondary market and are not generally supported by in-depth market research.

New financial products that grow extremely rapidly often become an area of unexpected risk in the markets. Frequently, the weaknesses of new products, in this case private credit loans, may only be seen and exposed in bad markets, which private credit loans have not yet faced. When credit spreads gap out, when interest rates go up and when some leveraged companies suffer in the recession, we will find out how those loans survive stress testing. In addition, they can create a little bit of a “credit crunch” for borrowers since it might be hard for private creditors to roll over loans under those conditions. Under stress conditions, private creditors would have to charge exorbitant prices that companies simply cannot afford in order to book the new loan at par. Banks are in a slightly different position.

A BANK’S STRENGTH: PROVIDING FLEXIBLE CAPITAL

Banks generally try to be there for their borrowers in difficult times — striving to roll over loans, renegotiate terms and raise additional capital. Banks do this for multiple reasons: They normally feel an obligation to help their clients, they have long-term relationships and they can commonly earn other sources of revenue from client-driven transactions. Banks can also flex their capital and lending base as needed by their clients. This is because a bank can and should make decisions to help companies through good times and bad, seeking to retain them as long-term clients across many areas of the bank. They can and do take “losses” that help the client maintain the franchise. But an asset manager must act as a “fiduciary” of other people’s money and cannot lend based on a moral obligation or potential future relationship.

Recently, we have been witnessing a convergence between the public and private markets. But it’s too soon to say how this ultimately will play out, particularly if we go through a recessionary cycle.

Management Lessons: Thinking, Deciding and Taking Action – Deliberately and with Heart

I always enjoy sharing what I’ve learned from watching others, reading and experiencing through my own journey.

BENEFITING FROM THE OODA LOOP

The military, which often operates in extreme intensity of life and death and in the fog and uncertainty of war, uses the term “OODA loop” (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act — repeat), a strategic process of constant review, analysis, decision making and action. One cannot overemphasize the importance of observation and a full assessment — the failure to do so leads to some of the greatest mistakes, not only in war but also in business and government.

A full assessment is critical.

To properly manage any business situation, you need to perform a full and complete assessment of it. In business, you have to understand your competitors, their distribution, their economics, their innovations, and their strengths and weaknesses. You also need to understand customers and their changing preferences, along with your own costs, your people and their skills. Then there’s knowing how other factors fit in, like technology, risk, motivations … hope you get the point. For countries, you need a thorough grasp of their economies, strengths and weaknesses, population and education, access to raw materials, laws and regulations, history and culture. Research, data and analytics should be at a very detailed level and constantly reassessed. Only after you complete this diligent study can you start to make plans with a high degree of success.

Get on the road – it builds knowledge and culture.

I have frequently wondered about all the nonstop road trips, client meetings, briefings, greetings, bus trips, and visits to call centers, operating centers and branches, regulators and government officials, among others: Did they make a difference? The answer is absolutely yes because they enabled a process of constant learning, assessment and modification of best practices — gaining insights from employees to clients to competitors. Employees will tell you what you are doing well or poorly if you simply ask them, and they know you want to hear the real answer. Curiosity is a form of humility — acknowledging that you don’t know everything. Responding to curiosity allows other people to speak freely. Facts and details matter and inform a deeper and deeper analysis that allows you to continually revise and update your plans. This, of course, also means that you are constantly admitting prior mistakes.

You need to shed sacred cows, seek out blind spots and challenge the status quo.

Very often companies or individuals develop narratives based upon beliefs that are very hard to dislodge but are often wrong — and they can lead to terrible mistakes. A few examples will suffice. Stripe, Inc. built a payments business by working with developers — something we never would have imagined but might have figured out if we had tried to seek out what others were doing in this area. Branches were being closed, both at Bank One and Chase, because the assumption was that they would not be needed in the future. We underinvested for years in the wealth management business because we were always focused on the value of deposits versus investments. Question everything.

Use your brains to figure out the truth — not to justify what you already think.

It’s often hard to change your own attitudes and beliefs, especially those you may have held on to for some time. But you must be open to it. When you learn something that is different from what you thought, it may affect many conclusions you have, not just one. Try not to allow yourself to become rigid or “weaponized,” where other employees or interest groups jazz you up so much that you become a weapon on their behalf. This makes it much harder to see things clearly for yourself. When people disagree with you, seek out where they may be partially right. This opens the door for a deeper understanding and avoids binary thinking.

It's hard to see certain long-term trends, but you must try.

There is too much emphasis on short-term, monthly data and too little on long-term trends and on what might happen in the future that would influence long-term outcomes. For example, today there is tremendous interest in monthly inflation data, although it seems to me that every long-term trend I see increases inflation relative to the last 20 years. Huge fiscal spending, the trillions needed each year for the green economy, the remilitarization of the world and the restructuring of global trade — all are inflationary. I’m not sure models could pick this up. And you must use judgment if you want to evaluate impacts like these.

Also, a block of time as short as one year is an artificial framework for judging the impact of long-term trends that could easily play out over years. A helpful exercise is to think “future back,” in which you imagine different future outcomes, including the ones you want, and then work backward to events that are happening today (or that might happen or that you cause to happen), closely examining the connections between those events and your projected or desired outcomes. Those connections inform your risk and R&D planning. Similarly, when companies compare the attributes of their products and services with their competitors, they usually only consider where they are versus their competitors. But nothing is static — they should consider where their competitors will be in the future. Conditions are always changing, crises are always emerging. When analyzing the playing field, it is better to assume that your competitors are strong and are already in the process of improving and innovating. This minimizes the chance of arrogance leading to complacency.

DECISION MAKING AND ACTING (HAVE A PROCESS)

There is a time for an individual to decide and act.

Sometimes you should take the time to measure twice and cut once. And then sometimes making a quick decision is better than delaying. You should try to distinguish between the two. For example, with decisions that are hard to reverse, it’s usually better to go slow. With other decisions where you can test, learn, probe and change direction, it’s often better to go fast. It’s been my experience that it’s hard for some people to actually decide and act. This could be from analysis paralysis, lack of “perfect” information, fear of failure or the feeling that full consensus is needed before a decision can be reached. But whatever it is, it can slow down and possibly seriously damage a company.

To get people to think like decision makers and take a strong point of view, we like to ask, “What would you do if you were king or queen for a day?” It helps shift the direction to individual decision making. We also ask questions like, “What would you wish for if you knew X was going to happen?” (for example, higher interest rates). Decision making takes a mix of courage, grit and guts.

One exercise that I find useful (and sometimes painful) is to draw up a list of important decisions that need to be made — the ones I often avoid confronting. So I take time every Sunday to think about these tough issues and almost always make progress. Progress doesn’t always mean that you come to the final conclusion — sometimes it’s just a very rational next step that can put you on a path to the final decision.

Try to have a good decision-making process.

Try to give yourself the time to decide. Make sure you speak with the right people and make sure the right people are in the room. Information should be fully shared. People should be made very comfortable with open debate. Quite often, the “right” answer is simply waiting to be found — you don’t have to guess.

Crowdsourcing, compromise, consensus and committees have benefits and risks.

There are huge benefits to crowdsourcing intelligence. It is a form of full assessment, a strategy for getting the best ideas and challenging the status quo. We should do this for almost every major decision. It is perfectly fine on some occasions to compromise and gain consensus, particularly on decisions that are not critical and can easily be reversed. Often people spend too much time debating issues that are simply not that important; it’s better to decide and move on. Also, before you compromise, you should know exactly what you want to achieve and the consequences of any tradeoffs. However, sometimes compromise and consensus cannot work and only lead to a feel-good decision that is probably wrong — this could be the road to ruin.

The use of committees can be good when done properly. For example, if our risk committees could do a full assessment and crowdsource all potential risks, that would lead to better decision making. I will give one very personal and painful example, which is when we had a major trading scandal, called The London Whale. The scandal was not caused by the complexity of the trade but rather the failure to go to the proper Risk committee for a thorough review, which should have happened but didn’t. I have no doubt that had the trade been raised there, the flaws would have been exposed immediately, thereby dramatically reducing or eliminating the problem. On the other hand, the opposite can happen when a committee, with everyone staring at each other, devolves into herd-like behavior with people looking for confirmation and ending up with a compromise that is a poor choice.

Good leadership involves great observation and the ability to act, but there is more …

THE SECRET SAUCE OF LEADERSHIP (HAVE A HEART)

You need to earn trust and respect with your employees.

You can be great at assessment, you can be brilliant and you may often be willing to act. But all of that is not good enough for “complete” leadership. To become a true leader, you need to be trusted and you must earn your respect, every day. People have to know that you do not have ulterior motives and that you’re trying to do the right thing — not trying to burnish your personal reputation. Good people want to work for people they respect, and they will not respect people who take all the credit and share all the blame. People need to know that even when you make mistakes, you’re willing to admit them and take corrective action. And there is more …

The importance of vision, communication and inspiration.

The reason I’ve always hesitated to talk about “vision” is because often it is the basic BS of corporate speak — that somehow if you impart your vision to people, they will take the mountain. What it really is all about is this: After you’ve done your full assessment and decision making, you can then continuously educate, explain, train, simplify, propel and fight. But this only works if people know you are in the trenches with them, if they understand the mission and if they are there side by side with your effort.

We know that bureaucracy can lead to politics, corporate stasis and terrible decisions. So you can communicate your vision about how to fight bureaucracy by telling stories about the silly things we do — but with a smile — and then by showing people that you will actually fix the problems.

Finally, your vision needs to be clear, coherent and consistent. Within an organization, people very quickly pick up the pattern of management saying one thing but doing another. Because if words and actions are inconsistent (for example, and I could give many, when we say we want employees to be treated with respect, but we allow a jerk to be their boss), confidence in leadership will be eroded.

Heart cannot be overstated.

Heart matters. And it makes a difference when people know and see that you actually care. One example: Many years ago when I was new to JPMorgan Chase, I learned that the company’s security guards had been outsourced — to save money. Since after outsourcing, when the same guards continued coming to work every day at the same salary, I wondered, “How could this be?” (FYI, this was brought to my attention by the head of the Service Employees International Union, who came to see me over the objection of my management team.) The reason we were saving money is because the healthcare benefits were cut in half for the guards and their family members (currently worth approximately $15,000 a year), and the savings were split with us. This was a heartless thing to do — and the second I found out, I reversed the decision. JPMorgan Chase’s success will not be built off the backs of our guards — it will be the result of fair treatment of all of our employees — and we’re thankful that many of those guards are still with our company today.

You know heart and soul when you see it in effect on sports teams or with “the boys in the boat” — it’s a beautiful thing to watch. It’s not as obvious, but it happens in business, too.

It’s essential to build trust with your customers, constituencies and, yes, even competitors.

Of course, I’m not bringing this up as a matter of corporate governance or a corporation’s purpose: A business should, over the long run, try to maximize shareholder value. It is completely obvious that running a decent business —treating everyone ethically and earning trust and respect in all your communities — is not only fundamental to shareholder value but also to a healthy society.

A Pivotal Moment for America and the Free Western World: Strategy and Policy Matter

In past years, I have written extensively about public policy issues. It is important to engage in these conversations, particularly around domestic economic policy because policy matters . While JPMorgan Chase can execute specific plans to improve outcomes for customers and communities, there is no replacement for effective government policies that add to the general well-being of the country. A stronger and more prosperous country will make us a stronger company.

As CEO of this company, every year I visit numerous countries around the globe. I meet with foreign government leaders, presidents and prime ministers, business leaders, and civic and academic experts, which allows me to learn a significant amount about how public policy is executed around the world. It also reinforces some of the critical values and virtues that are essential to a healthy country.

Every time I see the American flag, it reminds me of the values and virtues of this country and its founding principles conceived in liberty and dedicated to the notion that all men and women are created equal. Talk with someone who has recently become a naturalized citizen or watch a ceremony where groups of people take the oath to America, and you will see extraordinary joy and newfound pride. They now live free, with individual rights protected by the Constitution and with their life and the well-being of their family and community protected by the U.S. military. As Americans, we have much to be grateful for and much to defend.

If you read the newspaper from virtually any day of any year since World War II, there is abundant coverage on wars — hot and cold — inflation, recession, polarized politics, terrorist attacks, migration and starvation. As appalling as these events have been, the world was generally on a path to becoming stronger and safer. When terrible events happen, we tend to overestimate the effect they will have on the global economy. Recent events, however, may very well be creating risks that could eclipse anything since World War II — we should not take them lightly.

February 24, 2022 is another day in history that will live in infamy. On that day, 190,000 Russian soldiers invaded a free and democratic European country — importantly, somewhat protected by the threat of nuclear blackmail. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent abhorrent attack on Israel and ongoing violence in the Middle East should have punctured many assumptions about the direction of future safety and security, bringing us to this pivotal time in history. America and the free Western world can no longer maintain a false sense of security based on the illusion that dictatorships and oppressive nations won’t use their economic and military powers to advance their aims — particularly against what they perceive as weak, incompetent and disorganized Western democracies. In a troubled world, we are reminded that national security is and always will be paramount, even if its importance seems to recede in tranquil times.

The fallout from these events should also lay to rest the idea that America can stand alone. Of course, U.S. leaders must always put America first, but global peace and order are vital to American interests. Only America has the full capability to lead and coalesce the Western world, though we must do so respectfully and in partnership with our allies. Without cohesiveness and unity with our allies, autocratic forces will divide and conquer the bickering democracies. America needs to lead with its strengths — not only its military but also its economic, diplomatic and moral forces. And now we must do so as America’s leadership is being challenged around the world. There is nothing more important.

Policy and strategy matter, and it’s important to be engaged.

In our increasingly complex world, there is a vital interrelationship between domestic and foreign economic policy, particularly around trade, investment, national security and other issues. And, of course, while American voters and leadership set U.S. foreign policy, being a constructive part of the global conversation has become more important than ever.

If you doubt how important public policy is for the health of a country, you need to look no further than the recent history of Greece, Ireland or Singapore. Each of these countries, starting from deeply challenging places, implemented effective government and policies that have done a great job of lifting up their people when many thought it wasn’t possible. Sweden is another great example of a country with good broad-based policies that have succeeded at precisely what we all may want — a dynamic, innovative, free-market economy (Sweden actually has fewer government-owned enterprises than America) and safety nets that work. Conversely, you need to look no further than North Korea or Venezuela to see the complete destruction and havoc that terrible public policies (often in the name of the people) can cultivate.

Strategy by its nature must be comprehensive. In the rest of this section, I try to answer the question: What must we do to ensure that the world stays safe, not only for America but for freedom and democracy? A comprehensive strategy entails four important pillars, and we must succeed at each:

Maintain American leadership (including military).
Achieve long-term economic success with our allies.
Strengthen our nation domestically.
Deepen focus and resolve on addressing our most pressing challenges.

COALESCING THE WESTERN WORLD — A UNIQUELY AMERICAN TASK

Only America has the full capabilities of military might, economic power and the principles that most people around the world yearn for — based on “liberty and justice for all” and the proposition that all people are created equal. America remains the bastion of freedom and the arsenal of democracy.

There is no alternative to American leadership.

In the free and democratic Western world, and, in fact, for many other countries, there is no real or good alternative to America. The only other potential superpower is China. Other nations know they can rely on the founding principles of America. If we reach out our hand, most nations will happily take that hand. America is still the most prosperous nation on the planet, which not only can guarantee our military strength but also positions us to help our allies develop and grow their nations (though we should minimize the “our way or the highway” type of behavior). This leadership is needed today to help Ukraine stay free in its battle with Russia.

Most of the world wants American leadership.

America continues to be the envy of much of the world, and as we’ve seen with the challenges at our borders, there is a reason people want to come here and not to autocratic nations. If you opened America’s borders to the rest of the world, I have little doubt that hundreds of millions of people would want to move here. By contrast, not many would want to emigrate to autocratic nations. Also, I have little doubt that if most investors across the globe could only invest in one country, they would choose the United States. Beyond our country’s borders, people and nations around the world understand the role that America has played in promoting world peace — known as Pax Americana. For the most part, Pax Americana has kept the world relatively peaceful since World War II and helped lead to enormous global economic prosperity, which has helped lift 1.3 billion people out of poverty.

Modern America does not engage in economic coercion or foreign wars to steal land or treasure. The fact that some of our foreign excursions might have been misguided does not negate this. We helped rebuild Europe and Japan after the devastation of World War II, and we, with our allies, have helped create global institutions to maintain peace. We are still trusted.

First and foremost, the Western world needs unquestioned military might — peace through strength.

“We know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are weak,” said Ronald Reagan in 1980.

So far, the Western world has done a good job in strengthening military alliances in response to the war in Ukraine. Ukraine is essentially the front line that needs immediate support. Providing that support is the best way to counter autocratic forces that would seek to weaken the Western world, particularly America. But the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East could become far worse and spread in unpredictable ways. Most important, the specter of nuclear weapons — probably still the greatest threat to mankind — hovers as the ultimate decider, which should strike deep fear in all our hearts. The best protection starts with an unyielding resolve to do whatever we need to do to maintain the strongest military on the planet — a commitment that is well within our economic capability.

American leadership requires not only the military but also the full “symphony of power.”

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, in his book Exercise of Power, writes extensively in the first chapter about “the symphony of power.” He makes the critical point that America has often overused and misused military power and has massively underused other muscles — diplomacy, intelligence, communication (explaining to the world the benefits of democracy and free enterprise) and comprehensive economic policy.

America has the most extensive group of partners, friends and allies — both military and economic — that the world has probably ever seen. We should put this to better use.

The American public ought to hear more about why this is so important.

International isolationism has run through American foreign policy throughout our history, frequently with good reason. The chant, “Don’t get involved in foreign wars” was often right. That said, the American public should remember that even after the Revolutionary War, we did, in fact, have British and French armies on our soil. The sinking of American merchant and passenger ships during World War I and the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II brought isolationism to a close for a time. America is never far from being dragged into terrible conflicts. Global wars come to our shores whether we like it or not — we need to stay engaged.

In perilous periods of history when our allies and other democracies were under serious assault, great American leaders have inspired the American people — through words and actions — to stand up to help and defend them. Staying on the sidelines during battles of autocracy and democracy, between dictatorship and freedom, is simply not an option for America today. Ukraine is the front line of democracy. If the war goes badly for Ukraine, you may see the splintering of Pax Americana, which would be a disaster for the whole free world . Ukraine’s struggle is our struggle, and ensuring their victory is ensuring America first . It is imperative that our national leaders explain to the American people what is at stake and make a powerful case – with energy, consistency and clarity – for our strong enduring commitment to Ukraine’s survival for as long as it takes (and it could take years).

One last point: Ukraine needs our help immediately, but it’s important to understand that much of the money that America is directing to Ukraine is for purchasing weapons and equipment, most of which will be built in America. Not only is our aid helping Ukraine, but it is going directly to American manufacturers, and it is helping the country rebuild our military industrial capacity for the next generation.

STRENGTHENING OUR POSITION WITH A COMPREHENSIVE, GLOBAL ECONOMIC SECURITY STRATEGY

Sustaining America’s economic strength is a bedrock for our long-term military strength. There are many things we need to do to strengthen the U.S. economy, and I talk about that later in this section. This discussion is about foreign economic policies – the economic battlefield.

The whole Western world is rethinking and reimagining its military strategies and alliances. We need to do the same for our economic strategies and alliances, but we should be guided by a comprehensive global strategy that deals with critical issues. Done properly, such a strategy would help strengthen, coalesce and possibly be the glue that holds together Western democratic alliances over decades.

Foreign economic policy involves trade and investment, export controls, secure and resilient supply chains, and the execution of sanctions and any related industrial policies. It must also include development finance — think of the “Belt and Road” efforts in China — which are critical to most developing nations. This framework should tell us not only how to deal with our allies but also how to work with nonaligned nations around the world. These strategies should not be aimed against any one country (such as China) but rather be focused on keeping the world safe for democracy and free enterprise.

Economic national security is paramount — both for the United States and for our allies.

It is a valid point that the Western world — both government and business — essentially underestimated the growing strength and potential threat of China. It’s also true that China has been comprehensively and strategically focused on these economic issues, all while we slept. But let’s not cry over spilled milk — let’s just fix it.

We missed the potential threat from three vantage points. The first is companies’ overreliance on China as the sole link in their supply chain, which can create vulnerabilities and reduces resiliency. But to the extent this involves everyday items, like clothes, sneakers, vaccine compounds and consumer goods, this dependency is not as critical or complex and will eventually be sorted out.

The second is the most critical. The United States cannot rely on any potential adversaries for materials essential to our national security — think rare earths, 5G and semiconductors, penicillin and materials critical to essential pharmaceuticals, among others. We also cannot be sharing vital technologies that can enhance an adversary’s military capabilities. The United States should properly and narrowly define these issues and then act unilaterally, if necessary, to fix them.

The third is also complex, which is countering unfair competition or “mercantilist” behavior in critical industries; think electric vehicles, renewable energy and AI, among others. Examples of this would be where a state, any state, uses government powers, capital, subsidies or other means to dominate critical industries and deeply damage the economic position of other nations. Weakening a country economically can render it a virtual “vassal state,” reliant on potential adversaries for essential goods and services, which also weakens it militarily. We cannot cede our important resources and capabilities to potential adversaries.

All these issues can be resolved, though they will take time and need devoted effort.

Every nation will have different national security issues. For example, Europe in general and countries like India, Japan and Korea need reliable, affordable and secure energy; many nations would put food security as their top concern. This means that we must work with our allies to accomplish our own goals and to help them accomplish theirs. We have extraordinary common interests in our joint security: We must hang together — because if we don’t, we will assuredly hang separately.

We already engage in trade — improving it is good economics and great geopolitics.

We must have a better understanding of trade. As a nation, we refuse to get into genuine trade discussions, but this ignores the complete and obvious truth — we already have trade relationships with all these countries. Approximately 92% of the world’s consumers live outside the United States. Increased trade allows our workers and farmers to access those markets. We should negotiate trade agreements that can achieve more, economically, for ourselves and our allies, as well as meet all of our national security needs. While it is appropriate to use trade to continue to nudge allies in the right direction around human rights and climate, this objective should be subordinated to our national interests of long-term security.

Negotiating must be done in concert with our allied nations so as not to cause a fissure in economic relations. This is critical — strong economic bonds will help ensure strong military alliances. The Inflation Reduction Act has much good in it (more on this later), but it angered many of our allies. To them, the bill was by America and for America, and, subsequently, they felt a need to match it so their businesses would not be disadvantaged. The terms of the legislation could have been better negotiated with our allies in mind, strengthening our economic ties with the free world.

We should also immediately re-enter, if possible, the prior negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. Not only is it good for the economy, but it also could be a brilliant, strategic, economic security move — an economic alliance that binds us with 11 other important countries (including Australia, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore and Vietnam). Geopolitically and strategically, this might be one of the most important moves to counter China. While this is a challenging step, our political leaders need to explain and lead — and not be afraid of dealing with the tough issues. We also need to acknowledge that there have been real negative job impacts as a result of trade, which are usually concentrated around certain areas and businesses. So any new trade policy should be combined with a greatly enhanced Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which provides retraining, income assistance and relocation for those workers directly impacted by trade.

Trade is realpolitik , and the recent cancellation of future liquified natural gas (LNG) projects is a good example of this fact. The projects were delayed mainly for political reasons — to pacify those who believe that gas is bad and that oil and gas projects should simply be stopped. This is not only wrong but also enormously naïve. One of the best ways to reduce CO2 for the next few decades is to use gas to replace coal. When oil and gas prices skyrocketed last winter, nations around the world — wealthy and very climate-conscious nations like France, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as lower-income nations like Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam that could not afford the higher cost — started to turn back to their coal plants. This highlights the importance of safe, secure and affordable energy. Second, the export of LNG is a great economic boon for the United States. But most important is the realpolitik goal: Our allied nations that need secure and affordable energy resources, including critical nations like Japan, Korea and most of our European allies, would like to be able to depend on the United States for energy. This now puts them in a difficult position — they may have to look elsewhere for such supplies, tuning to Iran, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates or maybe even Russia. We need to minimize anything that can tear at our economic bonds with our allies.

The strength of our domestic production of energy gives us a “power advantage” — cheaper and more reliable energy, which creates economic and geopolitical advantages.

Industrial policy is now necessary, but it should be carefully constructed and limited.

In some cases, industrial policy (using government resources to subsidize investments to help make businesses more competitive) may be the only solution for quickly building up the industries we need (rare earths and semiconductors, among others) to guarantee resilient national security. The IRA and CHIPS Act are good examples of this and government has to get it right.

Such policy can also be used to help combat unfair competitive policies of nations that are using state capitalism and state control to dominate critical industries. However, when crafting industrial policy, the function of government needs to be narrowly defined and kept simple; i.e., governmental jurisdiction should be limited to very specific products and probably to what we know works, such as tax credits and, to a lesser extent, loan guarantees. And industrial policy should include twin provisions: 1) strict limitations on political interference, like social policies, and 2) specific permitting requirements, which, if not drastically improved, will badly inhibit our ability to make investments and allow infrastructure to be built. Adding social policy, politics and matters other than simple tax credits dramatically reduces the economic efficiency of industrial policy and creates conditions for corporate America to feed at the trough of government largess. We should quickly address how we can improve on already executed legislation. We do not want to look back and have great regrets about how so much of this policy work failed.

There are those who argue that the U.S. government needs much more far-reaching industrial policy to be able to micromanage and accomplish its many ambitious objectives. To those I say, read further in this section about how ineffective so many government policies have been.

We should be tough, but we should engage with China.

Over the last 20 years, China has been executing a more comprehensive economic strategy than we have. The country’s leaders have successfully grown their nation and, depending on how you measure it, have the first or second largest economy in the world. That said, many question the current economic focus of China’s leadership as they don’t have everything figured out. While China has become the largest trading partner to many countries around the world, its own GDP per person is $13,000. And the country continues to be beset by many economic and domestic issues.

China has its own national security concerns. The country is located in a very politically complex part of the world, and many of China’s actions have caused its neighbors (e.g., Japan, Korea, Philippines, among others) to start to re-arm and, in fact, draw closer to the United States. It also surprises many Americans to hear that while our country is 100% energy sufficient, China needs to import 10 million barrels of oil a day. It is clear that China’s new leadership has set a different course, with a much more intense focus on national security, military capability and internal development. That is their right, and we simply need to adjust to it.

America still has an enormously strong hand — plenty of food, water and energy; peaceful neighbors; and what remains the most prosperous and dynamic economy the world has ever seen, with a per person GDP of over $80,000 a year. Most important, our nation is blessed with the benefit of true freedom and liberty. See the sidebar on the amazing power of freedom later in this section.

While we may always have a complex relationship with China (made all the more complicated and serious by ongoing wars), the country’s vast size and importance to so many other nations requires us to stay engaged — thoughtfully and without fear. At the same time, we need to build and execute our own long-term, comprehensive economic security strategy to keep our position safe and secure. I believe that respectful, strong and consistent engagement would be best for both our countries and the rest of the world.

We need to strengthen and rebuild the international order — we may need a new Bretton Woods.

The international rules-based order established by the Western world after World War II is clearly under attack by outside forces, somewhat weakened by its own failures and inability to keep up with the increasingly complex world. This international order relies on a web of military alliances, trade agreements (e.g., World Trade Organization), development finance (e.g., International Monetary Fund and the World Bank) and related global tax and investment policies and diplomacy organizations (e.g., United Nations), which have evolved into a confusing and overlapping regime of policies. You can now add to it the new issues of cyber warfare, digital trade and privacy, and global taxes, among others.

It might be a good idea to convene a group of like-minded leaders to build and improve upon what already exists. The time may be right for a reimagined Bretton Woods — and by this, I mean revitalizing our global architecture. Since too many parts of the world have been neglected, any new system has to take into account and properly address the needs of all nations, including areas of concentrated poverty.

While we hope the wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East will end eventually (and, we hope, successfully from the standpoint of our allies), these other critical economic battles could possibly continue throughout our lifetime. If the Western world is slowly split apart over the next few decades, it will likely be the result of our failure to effectively address crucial global economic challenges.

PROVIDING STRONG LEADERSHIP GLOBALLY AND EFFECTIVE POLICY MAKING DOMESTICALLY

When you travel around the United States and talk with people of all types and persuasions, there is a rather common refrain; namely, why are we helping foreign nations with the safety of their borders and economies when we are not doing a particularly good job of protecting our own? While there is no moral equivalency in these arguments, they are understandable. It is clear that many Americans feel we need to do a better job here at home before we can focus over there . We can understand why some people living in this country, who have been neglected for decades, ask how their government can find the money for Ukraine and other parts of the world but not for them. It is a reasonable question.

From my point of view, our highly charged, emotional and political domestic issues are centered around 1) immigration and lack of border security and 2) the fraying of the American dream, particularly for low-income and rural Americans who feel left behind amid the growing wealth and prosperity of others around them. Please read the sidebar below, which I believe explains the legitimate frustration of some of our citizens. And I agree with them.

In the sidebar, I also explain how two policies (a large expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit and focus on work skills and job outcomes at high schools, community colleges and colleges) would not only dramatically increase both the income and employment opportunities for many of those left behind but would also have the virtue of actually growing the workforce. The combined effect of all of this would be quite a boon to our GDP.

I believe that many affected Americans are not angry at hardworking, law-abiding immigrants and, in fact, acknowledge the critical role immigrants continue to play in building this wonderful country. Rather, they are angry that America has not implemented proper border control and immigration policies. It is astounding that many in Congress know what to do and want to do it but are simply unable to pass legislation because of partisan politics. Congress did come close on a few occasions — and I hope they keep trying.

Deliberate policies meant to drive healthy growth are needed.

For over two decades, since 2000, America has grown at an anemic rate of 2%. We should have strived for and achieved 3% growth. Had we done so, GDP per person today would be $16,000 higher, which would, in turn, have paid for better healthcare, childcare, education and other services. Importantly, the best way to handle our excess deficit and debt issues is to maximize economic growth.

Growth policies include (the list could be very long so I’ll just mention a few):

Consistent tax policies, conducive to both employment and capital investment. Capital investment is the primary driver of innovation, productivity and, therefore, growth in America. Tax policies change too frequently, which causes uncertainty and complicates long-term capital investment decision making (I won’t bore you with the details here). A bipartisan committee of Congress is probably required to fix this — and the sooner the better.
Well-conceived regulations (and related laws). This requires an ongoing concerted effort to streamline regulations to cost-effectively drive better outcomes for the United States. The last thing we need is a constant pile-on of politically driven, fragmented policies. Please read the sidebar, an editorial in The Wall Street Journal by George McGovern, one of the most liberal presidential nominees in our lifetime, in which he clearly lays out the complexity, risks and costs that businesses, large and small, face every day. While he acknowledges the worthiness of the goals of many regulations, he points out their negatives. He also calls out the “blame-shifting and scapegoating and the endless exposure to frivolous claims and high legal fees.” Not only is this state of affairs demoralizing, but it also reduces employment, capital investment and the formation of new businesses, as well as cause unnecessary bankruptcies. Estimates of the regulatory costs for America are approximately $19,000 per worker, dwarfing the regulatory burdens in other countries. We all want sensible regulations that make us a better and safer nation – but this number is astounding. We should be able to accomplish our goals while sharply reducing needless and wasteful expenses. And remember, it’s discouraging not only to companies but to all citizens who have to deal with it on a daily basis.

WALL STREET JOURNAL

June 1, 1992

Manager's Journal: A Politician's Dream Is a Businessman's Nightmare

By George McGovern Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.

— Justice Felix Frankfurter

It's been 11 years since I left the U.S. Senate, after serving 24 years in high public office. After leaving a career in politics, I devoted much of my time to public lectures that took me into every state in the union and much of Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

In 1988, I invested most of the earnings from this lecture circuit acquiring the leasehold on Connecticut's Stratford Inn. Hotels, inns and restaurants have always held a special fascination for me. The Stratford Inn promised the realization of a longtime dream to own a combination hotel, restaurant and public conference facility — complete with an experienced manager and staff.

In retrospect, I wish I had known more about the hazards and difficulties of such a business, especially during a recession of the kind that hit New England just as I was acquiring the inn's 43-year leasehold. I also wish that during the years I was in public office, I had had this firsthand experience about the difficulties business people face every day. That knowledge would have made me a better U.S. senator and a more understanding presidential contender.

Today we are much closer to a general acknowledgment that government must encourage business to expand and grow. Bill Clinton, Paul Tsongas, Bob Kerrey and others have, I believe, changed the debate of our party. We intuitively know that to create job opportunities we need entrepreneurs who will risk their capital against an expected payoff. Too often, however, public policy does not consider whether we are choking off those opportunities.

My own business perspective has been limited to that small hotel and restaurant in Stratford, Conn., with an especially difficult lease and a severe recession. But my business associates and I also lived with federal, state and local rules that were all passed with the objective of helping employees, protecting the environment, raising tax dollars for schools, protecting our customers from fire hazards, etc. While I never have doubted the worthiness of any of these goals, the concept that most often eludes legislators is: "Can we make consumers pay the higher prices for the increased operating costs that accompany public regulation and government reporting requirements with reams of red tape." It is a simple concern that is nonetheless often ignored by legislators.

For example, the papers today are filled with stories about businesses dropping health coverage for employees. We provided a substantial package for our staff at the Stratford Inn. However, were we operating today, those costs would exceed $150,000 a year for health care on top of salaries and other benefits. There would have been no reasonable way for us to absorb or pass on these costs.

Some of the escalation in the cost of health care is attributed to patients suing doctors. While one cannot assess the merit of all these claims, I've also witnessed firsthand the explosion in blame-shifting and scapegoating for every negative experience in life.

Today, despite bankruptcy, we are still dealing with litigation from individuals who fell in or near our restaurant. Despite these injuries, not every misstep is the fault of someone else. Not every such incident should be viewed as a lawsuit instead of an unfortunate accident. And while the business owner may prevail in the end, the endless exposure to frivolous claims and high legal fees is frightening.

Our Connecticut hotel, along with many others, went bankrupt for a variety of reasons, the general economy in the Northeast being a significant cause. But that reason masks the variety of other challenges we faced that drive operating costs and financing charges beyond what a small business can handle.

It is clear that some businesses have products that can be priced at almost any level. The price of raw materials (e.g., steel and glass) and life-saving drugs and medical care are not easily substituted by consumers. It is only competition or antitrust that tempers price increases. Consumers may delay purchases, but they have little choice when faced with higher prices.

In services, however, consumers do have a choice when faced with higher prices. You may have to stay in a hotel while on vacation, but you can stay fewer days. You can eat in restaurants fewer times per month, or forgo a number of services from car washes to shoeshines. Every such decision eventually results in job losses for someone. And often these are the people without the skills to help themselves — the people I've spent a lifetime trying to help.

In short, "one-size-fits-all" rules for business ignore the reality of the marketplace. And setting thresholds for regulatory guidelines at artificial levels — e.g., 50 employees or more, $500,000 in sales — takes no account of other realities, such as profit margins, labor intensive vs. capital intensive businesses, and local market economics.

The problem we face as legislators is: Where do we set the bar so that it is not too high to clear? I don't have the answer. I do know that we need to start raising these questions more often.

Mr. McGovern. the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate, is president of the Middle-Eastern Policy Council in Washington.

(See related letters: "Letters to the Editor: A Politician's Dream Is a Businessman's Nightmare" •· WSJ July 2, 1922)

Timely permits on projects large and small. There is virtually no industry — from agriculture and construction to transportation, technology, and oil and gas — or business, large or small, that isn’t disadvantaged by the tedious process and the length of time it takes to get approvals for permits to get things done. This includes federal, state and local requirements. These bottlenecks also make investment far more costly and slow. Timely permits would improve infrastructure and save lives, not endanger them.
Proper federal government budgeting and fiscal management. The staggering inability of the government to draft and pass a proper budget causes deep and unnecessary damage to our growth. Some people estimate that the waste alone (due to improper payments, overlapping programs, and fragmented and duplicative contracts, among other things) could cost the nation hundreds of billions of dollars annually. This uncertainty filters through virtually every part of the American economy and should not be accepted.

We can all forgo a little self-interest to do what is right for our country.

Those of us who have benefited the most from this country bear even greater responsibility to do this. It’s perfectly understandable that institutions, including businesses, unions and industries, lobby in Washington, D.C., to protect themselves — in good ways and bad — but we should more regularly put national interests ahead of self-interests. It’s good to want to ensure well-paying jobs and healthy industries. But it is not good when it reduces competition, stops the deployment of enhanced technology, harms efficiency, creates fake jobs or builds bridges to nowhere or damages the general health of the economy. Doing the right thing, the right way – which is achievable – would be better for everyone. As former President John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

Celebrate American exceptionalism.

We can safely say that America is an exceptional nation built and grounded on principles — principles of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, free enterprise (capitalism), and the freedom and empowerment brought to us by our democracy through the power to elect our leaders and of our Constitution, which makes these individual freedoms sacrosanct. Much of the world yearns to be here because of those principles — the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We should extol those virtues while recognizing that America has never been a perfect nation, like all other nations. We can acknowledge our flaws and strive to constantly correct them, without denigrating our nation.

Let’s celebrate the shared sense of sacrifice that gives us all strength.

There were very few positives from the pandemic, but I’m mentioning one, which, unfortunately, didn’t last, but reflected the best of us. In New York City, at 7 p.m. every evening, people throughout the city would open their windows, shouting and screaming and banging pots and pans to show gratitude to the essential workers — sanitation workers, police, firefighters, emergency responders, nurses and doctors. Of course, these workers were always essential, but I was hoping that spirit and civility would become deeply embedded and have longer lasting effects in our society.

I can understand when an individual for conscientious reasons chooses not to do work that helps our military. But I cannot understand when an entire company takes that position. How can we have a sense of shared sacrifice, when America is home to 18 million veterans who were willing to risk their lives for America’s safety, and yet some companies are not even willing to use their fingertips to help?

For example, back in 1969 the cancellation of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs by the country’s most prestigious universities and colleges likely fueled the great divide – between elites and others in our country – that persists today. Our strength as a nation is best served when the best students and the best soldiers are brought together and we would all benefit from more civility and better teaching around basic virtues like hard work, shared sacrifice, justice, rationality and more respect for the enduring values of American freedom and free enterprise.

Resist being “weaponized.”

We can start by trying to understand other people’s and other voters’ points of views, even around deeply emotional topics. We can stop insulting whole classes of voters. We can stop name calling. We can stop blame-shifting and scapegoating. We can stop being petty. Politicians can cease insulting, baiting and belittling each other, which diminishes them and the voter. It has also become too acceptable for some politicians to say one thing in private and deliver a completely different message in public. It would also be nice to see some cabinet members from the opposing party. We should also stop degrading and demonizing American business and American institutions, which are the best in the world, because it erodes confidence in our very country.

Social media could do more.

There is no question that social media has some real negative effects, from the manipulation of elections to the increasingly documented negative effects on the mental health of children. These are issues impacting our individual and collective spheres, and it’s time for social media companies to take more action to remedy these challenges — and swiftly. Rapid advances in technology will not only make these existing issues harder to address, but they will likely create new ones. The current state of the online information landscape has wide-ranging implications on trust in institutions, information integrity and more — and it bears on institutions like ours, where platform policy has increasingly widespread implications for concerns about fraud, security and other issue spaces.

A range of tools and approaches is required to address this complex and important situation — and there are several measures that platform companies can immediately enact, voluntarily, while strengthening and improving their business models. One common sense and modest step would be for social media companies to further empower platform users’ control over what they see and how it is presented, leveraging existing tools and features — like the alternative feed algorithm settings some offer today. I believe many users (not just parents) would appreciate a greater ability to more carefully curate their feeds; for example, prioritizing educational content for their children.

Platforms could also consider enhanced authentication measures; i.e., having users identify themselves to the platform or to a trusted third party. This would have the virtue of increasing individual accountability and reducing imposters, bots and possibly foreign political actors on platforms. It would have immediate benefits for users who prefer content from authenticated sources that take responsibility for their postings. There are clear competing values that need to be balanced in such an approach, including those related to our cherished right to free speech, individual privacy and inclusion (for example, roughly 850 million people globally don’t have a way to easily authenticate themselves today). There are also legitimate questions as to whether authentication would be used as a tool to chill or block speech or quash bona fide political dissenters, and real work needs to be done to identify policy and technical solutions that balance such risks and benefits.

I offer these approaches as a starting place, understanding that it's crucial to continue honest conversation across sectors about the immediate, incremental improvements we can make to our online public square, considering the high stakes involved in how information is created and shared.

Effective measures will require time, money, learning and improvement, all in service of significantly enhancing the well-being, quality, and civility of our experiences online and in the world around us.

Healthy collaboration with business is needed.

Companies big and small create jobs, pay for employee healthcare and benefits, and build bridges, roads and hospitals. The people who work for and run these companies care deeply about their country — they are patriots, and they want to see people and communities succeed and prosper.

Unfortunately, the message America hears is that the federal government does not value business — that business is the problem and not part of the solution. There are fewer individuals in government who have any significant experience in starting or running a company, which is apparent every day in the political rhetoric that demonizes businesses and free enterprise and that damages confidence in American’s institutions. The relationship between business and government, in fact, might improve if there were more people from the business sector working in government. Inexperience with business is also evident from the regular lack of transparency or curiosity from regulators as they develop economic policies with potentially seismic consequences for the economy.

When I travel around the country, I experience a very different perspective on the street and at the local level — I see that many governors, mayors and city council members understand they are not facing big challenges alone. They stand shoulder to shoulder with our company, even when some of their constituents disagree or are skeptical about big banks. These government officials know they need partners who have the same stake in helping successful communities thrive and who care about building a prosperous future as much as they do. For example, in fewer than 10 years, Detroit saw one of the greatest turnarounds because of a vibrant collaboration between government and business. And businesses know they cannot succeed if individuals, families, towns and cities are not flourishing. We obviously don’t agree on everything, but there is a shared belief that we must work together. We can and should be full partners in developing solutions to our big problems.

The federal government, regardless of which party is in charge, needs to earn back trust through competence and effective policymaking.

The world is becoming more complex, more technologically competent and faster. Unfortunately the government simply is not built to innovate, compete and move quickly, as in the competitive business world. This may be the reason why government is becoming less effective. We need to take action on this because the loss of trust in government is damaging to society. We should be brutally honest about the staggering number of policies, systems and operations that are underperforming: Too many ineffective public schools do not give students the skills they need to land a well-paying job; we have over 25 million uninsured Americans, soaring healthcare costs and too many bad outcomes; we are unable to plan, permit and build infrastructure efficiently; our litigation system is capricious and wasteful; progress on immigration policies and reform is frustrating; lack of efficient mortgage markets and an affordable housing policy keep housing out of reach for many Americans; problems plague the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Internal Revenue Service; public universities don’t take responsibility for their costs and are often funded by excessive student lending; underinvestment in the electric grid results in high costs and unreliable service; highly inefficient U.S. merchant shipping and ports; and we have unfunded pension plans and no action on deficit spending, Social Security and Medicare. I’ll stop here. This should be unacceptable to all of us.

We need to find a way to bring more varied expertise and accountability to government.

We should be more ambitious in striving for excellence in government. I acknowledge that some of the best and the brightest are in government and the military today. Yet we should return to a government that seeks out more of the best and the brightest people from every background , including the private sector, to benefit from their knowledge and experience. Government also needs to leverage the expertise of business to address problems that it cannot solve on its own. And to be fair, business could use its influence to do less to further its own interest and more to enhance the nation as a whole.

We need good government. And there are some things only governments can do, such as oversee the military and justice systems. And while most innovation happens through the private sector, there are certain types of foundational innovations that can only be advanced by the government, such as basic research that simply cannot be funded by business. The Democrats want the government to do even more and the Republicans even less — I think we should spend more time trying to do even better . But no one, not even my most liberal Democratic friends, thinks that sending the government another trillion a year would be a wise use of money.

OUT OF THE LABYRINTH, WITH FOCUS AND RESOLVE

Even America, the most prosperous nation on the planet with its vast resources, needs to focus its resources on the complex and difficult tasks ahead.

I hope to never read a book about How the West Was Lost, summarized as follows: The failure to save Ukraine and find peace in the Middle East led to more bickering among the allies and weakened military alliances. This accelerated a division within the Western world, splitting countries into different economic spheres and with each nation trying to protect its economy, trade and energy sources. America’s economy weakened, eventually leading to the loss of its reserve currency status. Besotted by populism and partisanship and crippled by bureaucracy and lack of willpower, America failed to focus on what it needed to do to lead and save the Western world. The enemy was within — we just didn’t see it in time.

Paraphrasing what Winston Churchill was thought to have said: America, after it had exhausted all other possibilities, would do the right thing.

What I want and hope to see is a book about How the West Was Won. As the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East dragged on and as the fears of the Western world mounted, America rose to the challenge as it had in other turbulent times in history. America coalesced with its allies to form the alliances necessary to keep the world safe for freedom and democracy.

I remain with a deep and abiding faith in the strength of the enduring values of America.

WE SHOULD HAVE MORE FAITH IN THE AMAZING POWER OF OUR FREEDOMS

The heart and soul of the dynamism of America is human freedom — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, free enterprise (capitalism), and the freedom and empowerment brought to us by our democracy through the right to elect our leaders. Free people are at liberty to move around as they see fit, work as they see fit, dream as they see fit, and invest in themselves and in the pursuit of happiness as they see fit. This freedom that people enjoy, accompanied by the freedom of capital, is what drives the dynamism — economic and social — of this great country.

Our civil liberties depend upon the rule of law, property rights, including intellectual property, and restrictions on government encroachment upon these freedoms. Our Constitution and Bill of Rights secure our individual freedoms and reserve all rights to the individual other than those important but limited authorities given to the government.

The issue of individual rights is not all or none or freedom versus no freedom. There are, of course, terrible examples where individual rights were trampled upon, and the results were devastating — both for the individual and for the economy — in East Germany, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, to name a few. And there are many countries that protect individual rights and are on a spectrum closer to American values. Think of Europe, for example. But even in some countries that have some of these rights, a lack of dynamism — often due to bureaucracy, weak institutions and government, and corruption — is palpable and has clearly led to less innovation, lower growth and, in general, a lower standard of living.

Freedom must necessarily be joined with the principle of striving toward equal opportunity. Equal opportunity is what allows individuals to rise to the best of their ability — it also means unequal outcomes. Equal opportunity is the foundation for fairness and meritocracy. The fight for equality, which is a good moral goal, should not damage the rights of the individual and their liberties.

Democracy and freedom are cojoined — together, they make freedom more durable. Democracy also has a self-correcting element — every four years you get to throw out leadership if you don’t like them (which you do not see in autocracies). But we all know that democracy can be sloppy: Maintaining an effective democracy is hard work. Democracy fosters open debate and compromise, which lead to better decisions over time (whether in government or in business). Intelligence is effectively “crowdsourced” with constant feedback. Good public policy comes from good debate and analytics, guided by reason coupled with a firm understanding of what you would like the outcomes to be and complemented with an honest assessment of what is really happening.

Even democracies can become stagnant, bureaucratic and self-perpetuating. Good government does many admirable things, but admitting to mistakes is often not one of them. It takes civically engaged citizens and a strong free press to bring sunlight to issues and keep a nation strong.

Autocratic societies by their nature subjugate the individual to the state. By definition they are not meritocracies — they are more about “who you know,” and they exist to perpetuate the existing ruling class. Their decisions are based on a completely different calculation, and their decision-making process does not encourage and, therefore, benefit from open debate. Democracy means that it is immoral to subjugate individual freedoms to state actors other than to protect the existence of the nation itself.

There are values that many of us hold dear, such as religion, family and country. But none may be more important than the freedoms that allow us to choose to live our life as we see fit. We should do more to applaud the virtue and amazing power of our freedoms.

HOW WE CAN HELP LIFT UP OUR LOW-INCOME CITIZENS AND MEND AMERICA’S TORN SOCIAL FABRIC

To fix problems, we must first acknowledge them. Despite decades of government programs and all the moralizing that surrounds them, we have not done a particularly good job lifting up our low-income fellow citizens. I may be wrong, but I do believe this is tearing at the social fabric of America and is among the root causes of the fraying of the American dream.

The gap between low-wage and well-paid workers has been growing dramatically. From 1979 to 2019, the wage growth of the top 10% was nearly 10 times that of the bottom 10% — which, basically, had not increased at all. The growth of low-income workers’ annualized real wages after the pandemic was, for the first time in decades, higher than the top 60%, but that’s not enough. The net worth for the bottom 25% of households is $20,800, and the net worth for the bottom 10% is essentially $0. This makes it increasingly difficult for low-wage workers to support their families. Of the 160 million Americans working today, approximately 40 million are paid less than $15 per hour.

Low-income individuals bear far greater burdens than the rest of us. Nearly 40% of Americans don’t have $400 in savings to deal with unexpected expenses, such as medical bills or car repairs, which leads to financial distress. More than 25 million Americans don’t have medical insurance at all; of these, one in five are in a family with income below the federal poverty level. People who live in low-income neighborhoods also tend to have worse health outcomes, including higher rates of mental health issues, depression and suicide, and a lower life expectancy — as many as 20 years. Finally, low-income Americans generally experience higher unemployment and more crime.

No one can claim that the promise of equal opportunity is being offered to all Americans through our education systems. Students in the lowest socioeconomic bracket are 50% less likely to attend college than those in the highest socioeconomic groups. Many inner city schools graduate under 50% of their students — and even those who graduate may not be well-prepared for the workforce. In addition, boys growing up in the bottom 10% of family income are 20 times more likely to be incarcerated. Those who do run afoul of our justice system generally do not get the second chance that many of them deserve. Their exclusion from the workforce is not only unfair to them but also results in an estimated $87 billion average annual cost to the economy.

Too many policies that are wrong — affecting housing and mortgage markets, healthcare, immigration, regulation, education and student lending, to name a few — are jeopardizing the opportunity for American citizens to succeed. The people who suffer the most, throughout all of this, are not high-income individuals. I strongly believe that these outcomes are destroying the concept of “fair” in America and are driving populism and diminishing, if not eliminating, trust — not only in government but in all our institutions. Simply put, the social needs of far too many of our citizens are not being met. We should never accept these outcomes — we must fix them.

There are two policy changes that I believe can have a dramatic effect on jobs, growth and equality — and they go a long way toward repairing the frayed American dream. Let’s start by treating all jobs with respect. Even starter jobs, which are the first rung on the ladder of opportunity, bring dignity and create better social outcomes in terms of health, higher household formation and lower crime. Of these two policy changes, one would better utilize existing resources, and the other would cost some money. But both would significantly change outcomes for low-income Americans.

The free one is so blindingly obvious that it’s almost embarrassing to propose. Our schools (high schools, community colleges and perhaps even four-year colleges) should take responsibility for outcomes — they should be judged on the quality and income level of the jobs that their graduates and even non-graduates attain. This means providing graduating students and other individuals with work skills (in fields such as advanced manufacturing, cyber, data science and technology, healthcare and so on) that will lead to better paying jobs. These schools should work with local businesses to replicate effective programs that are in place — because that is where the actual jobs are now. This would be good for growth and, as there are so many examples of successful programs, we already know what to do. With nearly 9 million job openings and just under 6 million unemployed workers in the United States, job skills training has never been needed more. We already spend a tremendous amount of money on education — just not the right way.

The second step is related to the first: Get more income to low-paid workers. While this one would cost money, it is to me a complete no-brainer since it is an expansion of an existing program, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which many Democrats and Republicans already agree upon. Today, the EITC supplements low- to moderate-income working individuals and couples, particularly with children and people living in rural areas. For example, a single mother with two children earning $9 an hour (approximately $20,000 a year) could receive a tax credit of more than $6,000 at year-end. Workers without children receive a very small tax credit (96% of all EITC dollars were received by families with children). This should be dramatically expanded, including eliminating the child requirement from the calculation altogether. We should convert the EITC to make it more like a negative income payroll tax, paid monthly. Any tax credit income should not be offset by any other benefits these individuals already receive (we have to eliminate benefit “cliffs” that disincentivize work).

An increase in the EITC to a maximum of $10,000 would cost tens of billions a year, but I have little doubt that these policy changes would do more than anything else to lift up low-income families and their communities. Well-paying jobs have been shown to reduce crime, increase household formation, improve health and reduce addiction. Both of these policies would have the virtue of increasing the number of people in the workforce. I also have little doubt that this would add to GDP.

We should attack all our other problems as well, but these two policy changes alone would dramatically improve our low-income neighborhoods, broadly strengthen the economy and give more opportunity to deserving citizens. It would restore the American Dream for many.

It’s been 20 years since the Bank One-JPMorgan Chase merger — and it’s been an extraordinary journey. I can’t even begin to express my heartfelt appreciation and respect for the tremendous character and capabilities of the management team who got us through the good times and the bad times to where we stand today. And I recognize that we all stand on the shoulders of many others who came before us in building this exceptional company of ours.

I would also like to express my deep gratitude to the 300,000+ employees, and their families, of JPMorgan Chase. Through these annual letters, I hope shareholders and all readers have gained a deeper understanding of what it takes to be an “endgame winner” in a rapidly changing world. More important, I hope you are as proud of what we all have achieved — as a business, as a bank and as a community investor — as I am. Thank you for your partnership.

Finally, we sincerely hope to see the world on the path to peace and prosperity.

Jamie Dimon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer April 8, 2024

Bank of Client Franchises Built Over the Long Term Note: figures may not sum due to rounding

JPMorgan Chase Exhibits Strength in Both Efficiency and Returns When Compared with Large Peers and Best-in-Class Peers

Our Fortress Balance Sheet

Size of the Financial/Sector Industry

Facebook link (Opens Overlay)
Twitter link (Opens Overlay)
LinkedIn link (Opens Overlay)
Email link
Annual Report 2023

IMAGES

How To Write A Cover Letter Answering Questions
Blackrock virtual cover letter : r/FinancialCareers
BlackRock Letter
Millwright Apprentice Cover Letter
3+Best Blackrock Virtual Cover Letter Samples[Free]
5 Short Cover Letter Examples for Any Job (+ Writing Guide)

VIDEO

Blackrock letter to ceo
Why allways the letter questions 😭
Sermon Series: “Red Letter Questions” Message: “Who do you say I am?” January 21, 2024
Sermon Series: “Red Letter Questions” Message: “” March 10, 2024
RUPERT OF KNIGHTSBRIDGE ORIGINALLY DE BLACKROCK RD PENS LETTER OF SUPPORT 2 CILLIAN MURPHY B4 OSCARS
Sermon Series: “Red Letter Questions” Message: “What do you want me to do for you?” Februar

COMMENTS

BlackRock Virtual Cover Letter Hireview
BlackRock Virtual Cover Letter Hireview. BlackRock Video Interview Questions. They ask the same basic, behavioral questions for each video interview. Only two questions are asked, with 30 seconds to prepare and 1 minute 30 sec to answer the question. Questions vary depending on the department, but examples include:
BlackRock virtual cover letter questions : r/csMajors
All about studying and students of computer science. BlackRock virtual cover letter questions. To complete my BlackRock application for Data Engineering Internship, I must submit a virtual cover letter (VCL) through the HireVue link. The VCL will consist of two short pre-recorded video questions, which I must answer.
BlackRock Virtual Cover Letter Preparation Flashcards
BlackRock Virtual Cover Letter Preparation. What is your motivation to join BlackRock? Click the card to flip 👆. - Outstanding results of BlackRock. - BlackRock's use of innovative technology. - International scope of BlackRock. - ESG of BlackRock. Click the card to flip 👆.
Pass the Blackrock Hirevue Virtual Cover Letter
Our Blackrock Pass the Interview Pack has everything you need to succeed, including up-to-date questions for 2023 and comprehensive resources, so you can ace...
Early Career Program FAQs
November 12, 2021: All other roles. Application deadline for our Advanced Degree Program: November 12, 2021: All roles. Application deadline for our Spring Insight and Off-Cycle Internship Program: December 3, 2021. Application deadline for Women of the Markets and Black Heritage Program: September 24, 2021.
Blackrock HireVue Virtual Cover Letter Questions and Answers ...
"If you are preparing for your #Blackrock #HireVue Video #Cover Letter- this video is here to help you get comfortable and confident in your Blackrock video ...
[2023] Pass the Blackrock Interview
🔴 Enjoyed the video and want more help? Check out our Black Rock Pass the Interview Pack (Everything you need to get prepared + Up to Date Questions for 202...
Open Early Career Application Hints & Tips video transcript
When I applied to BlackRock, it was my first time recording a virtual cover letter. So I was a bit nervous. But after some practice, I found it to be a great way to highlight my passion and interest in the role. (DESCRIPTION) Text, What advice would you give to those interviewing with BlackRock? Zach Goodwin, ETF and Index Investments San ...
BlackRock Virtual Cover Letter Preparation Flashcards
Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like What is your motivation to join BlackRock?, Dynamic market outlooks, Close financial advisor client relationships and more.
Open introduction to global campus video transcript
The virtual cover letter is a short video that you will record. We'll ask you two questions and you'll be recorded answering them. SPEAKER 2 - Virtual cover letters must be completed within five calendar days of submitting your online application. This includes weekends and must be completed in one sitting.
30 BlackRock HireVue Interview Questions & Answers
BlackRock uses an algorithmic on-demand interview assessment company called HireVue to capture what they call your virtual cover letter. "The virtual cover letter is a short Q&A video recording that you must submit as part of the application process. We'll provide you with two questions to record your answers to.
BlackRock Interview Questions (2024)
Submitted a CV and virtual cover letter, then I completed two rounds of online interviews as I was fast tracked through the Women of the Markets program. Each round of interviews consisted of two half hour interviews with BlackRock team members. My final interview was with an MD at Blackrock.
BlackRock Hirevue Questions : r/FinancialCareers
Definitely helps. They probably randomize from a set of questions, but if you look like on glass door or wso for hirevue interview questions for blackrock they might have all of them there. Or atleast examples of them. lacrosity • 2 mo. ago. They ask why blackrock and tell me something not on your resume i recall. SokkaHaikuBot • 2 mo. ago.
BlackRock Graduate Analyst Interview Questions
Average Interview. Application. I applied online. I interviewed at BlackRock (London, England) in Oct 2023. Interview. The first stage of the assessment is the Virtual Cover Letter that involves answering two HireVue questions. You were given 3 minutes to prepare and then 1 minute 30 seconds to provide an answer.
Blackrock Online Assessment Tests: Practice Questions (2024)
The virtual cover letter must be completed within three calendar days of receiving the invitation to complete. Candidates must also complete their virtual cover letter recording in one sitting. ... The test lasts up to 90 minutes and comprises six coding questions. BlackRock numerical reasoning tests. Some candidates may need to sit a numerical ...
Blackrock virtual cover letter : r/FinancialCareers
I have a virtual cover letter for Blackrock's finance/internal audit and portfolio mgt. analyst role due in a few days. I've looked around and can't find any insight on the types of questions they ask. Would appreciate any advice. I recently graduated from a target school and have had numerous interviews with consulting firms /banks firms like ...
Lunch & Learn with a Campus Recruiter: CV & Virtual Cover Letter
This virtual CV & Virtual Cover Letter Workshop will help students learn how to create a stand-out resume and Virtual Cover Letter. You'll also have the chance to ask questions on our recruitment process. We offer Full-Time Analyst, Summer Internship, Placement, Off-Cycle and Spring Insight positions across a wide breadth of business areas.
How do you write a cover letter for a job at BlackRock?
To write a cover letter for a job at BlackRock you must prepare to record a virtual cover letter.BlackRock requires candidates to submit a video cover letter in order to be considered for employment.Here are some tips on how to put together your virtual cover letter for BlackRock:Write and practice a script.
BlackRock Analyst Program Interview Questions
Application. I applied online. I interviewed at BlackRock in Jan 2021. Interview. First round: Hirevue test for logical math and calculations The first half had pretty easy questions where they wanted to test precision and accuracy. Second half was pattern recognition, which was medium-level difficult.
Why BlackRock's Larry Fink Thinks We Need To Re-Invent ...
Fink's pragmatic approach to improving retirement savings focuses on some troubling hard numbers. Many workers can't afford to save because they lack rainy day savings. "Four-in-10 Americans ...
NPR responds after editor says it has 'lost America's trust' : NPR
NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust. NPR's top news executive defended its journalism and its commitment to ...
BlackRock Summer Analyst Interview Questions
339 BlackRock Summer Analyst interview questions and 298 interview reviews. Free interview details posted anonymously by BlackRock interview candidates. ... The initial stage consists of submitting your cv after which you have to submit a virtual cover letter in 5 days, more specifically hirevue interview. Youll be given time to prepare and ...
Jamie Dimon's Letter to Shareholders, Annual Report 2023
In 2023, we expanded our $5,000 Chase Homebuyer Grant program to include over 15,000 majority Black, Hispanic and Latino communities — and in January 2024, we increased our grant amount to $7,500 in select markets. Since our grant program began in 2021, we have provided about 8,600 grants totaling $43 million.
BlackRock Summer Intern Interview Questions
Summer Intern Interview. I interviewed at BlackRock. first, apply for it. then you will receive a video cover letter that needs to be done within 5 days after application. for each application, VCL is necessary. each question has 3 minutes to prepare and 90 seconds to answer.

By Industry

BlackRock Virtual Cover Letter Hireview

BlackRock Video Interview Questions

How to Prepare for Blackrock Video Interview

Blackrock Hireview General FAQs

See All Comments - 100% Free

Want to Vote on this Content?! No WSO Credits?

Trending Content

Why the Interviewer Asks This Question

BlackRock HireVue Interview Questions & Answers

1. Tell me about yourself.

Anonymous Interview Answers with Professional Feedback

2. Geographically, where would you like your career to take you?

3. How do you promote your own well-being?

4. How can we motivate you?

5. Why are you currently looking for employment?

6. How did you come to choose your career?

7. Where would you like BlackRock to take your career?

Entry Level Example

8. Why do you want to work with BlackRock?

9. Tell me about a time you had to break bad news to a client.

10. Why should we hire you over another equally-qualified candidate?

11. Tell me about the last time you were able to advance your career goals at work.

12. What is your personal purpose?

Answer Example

13. Who are BlackRock's clients?

14. Tell me about the last time you were passionate about finding a better way to do something at work.

15. Tell me about the last time had to deal with a demanding client while you were busy with other things on the job.

16. Have you ever violated a verbal or written confidentiality agreement?

17. Have you ever stolen supplies from work?

18. Have you ever suffered from the consequences of doing the right thing?

19. Tell me about the last time your sense of integrity was put to the test.

20. How do you feel about working for a company that celebrates and promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion?

How to Answer

21. Tell me about the last time you actively sought to learn something new at work.

22. Tell us about your professional education.

23. Tell me about the last time you made a mistake that impacted your work.

24. How would you describe your emotional ownership?

25. Tell me about the last time someone gave you unsolicited feedback.

26. When was the last time you exhibited real leadership potential?

27. What kind of salary are you looking for?

28. Do you prefer to work independently or as part of a team?

29. How important is it for you to cultivate relationships at work?

30. You have two quarters, eight dimes, three nickels, and one penny. Using all but three of your coins, what coins do you use to pay for an ice cream for $0.95?

Get 25% off all test packages!

BlackRock Tests

Careers at BlackRock

BlackRock Application Process

BlackRock Aptitude Tests

BlackRock Coding Challenge

BlackRock numerical reasoning tests

BlackRock Group Exercise

BlackRock Case study

BlackRock Presentation

First Interview

Final Interview

BlackRock Tests FAQs

What happens if I don’t complete the virtual cover letter by the deadline?

How many applications can I submit?

Do I need to complete a different virtual cover letter if I submit more than one application?

Can I reapply if I am unsuccessful in my application?

How long does the recruitment process at BlackRock take?

Enjoy what you’ve read? Let others know!

Try BlackRock Tests for Free

Blackrock 02

Reviews of our Blackrock tests

It was very different from any general aptitude test.

Interesting

normal difficulty level

Careers at BlackRock

Search for jobs

BlackRock Jobs

More From Forbes

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public's trust

NPR names tech executive Katherine Maher to lead in turbulent era

Praised by NPR's critics

Author Interviews

Heated pushback in NPR's newsroom

Questions of diversity