Davos bromance: Jamie Dimon says Macron is ‘unbelievable’

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is a huge — huge! — fan of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Dimon said Tuesday in Davos that he attended a dinner this week hosted by Macron. (The French president canceled his Davos trip to deal with violent protests at home.) The bank executive clearly came away impressed.

Macron is “exceptional,” Dimon said.

“The right policy, the right methods. He can communicate it well. It’s analytical, It’s factual, He wants business to help. He wants to lift up the people with lower incomes, he wants more income equality, he wants more women back to work. He wants the kids educated.”

He continued: “The guy is unbelievable. And he’s the hope of Europe.”

Dimon was speaking at an event on women’s issues sponsored by companies including JPMorgan (JPM). included a broader discussion of gender equity.

Asked if JPMorgan would release unadjusted data on its gender pay gap, Dimon demurred. Last week, Citigroup became the first big US bank to release global data on its median pay gap, without adjusting for factors like job level and location. It found that women are paid 71% of the median that men earn.

“Unadjusted is for most companies you’re going to find — and Citi came out, it’s going to be around 70% — that’s because for most companies, you have far more female receptionists and female tellers … those are good opportunities to people. And in and of itself is not a bad thing,” Dimon said.

He went on to say that gender pay gaps “could be a bad thing” if they exist because women aren’t being promoted.

“If you’re going to use numbers like that you have to use them wisely,” he said.