ECONOMY

JPMorgan Chase head arrives for a two-day visit

Jamie Dimon, the chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, is expected to arrive in Athens on Wednesday for a two-day visit and will likely meet with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in the afternoon. He will also hold meetings with a number of Greek bankers, entrepreneurs and shipowners.

Dimon’s presence in the country forms part of the contacts that Samaras began last year during a visit to New York. Market sources say that the JPMorgan Chase chief deserves credit for Athens’s success in reversing the negative image of the country abroad and rebuilding foreign investors’ confidence in Greece. Dimon is said to have assisted significantly in boosting investment interest in Greek bonds.

JPMorgan Chase led the foreign firms that coordinated Greece’s return to the international market with the issue of a five-year bond in April that was worth 3 billion euros but attracted bids of 20 billion.

One key detail is Dimon’s Greek roots. The 58-year-old was born in New York to parents of Greek heritage. His grandfather, a banker, changed his surname from Papadimitriou to Dimon when he immigrated to the US.

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