The big acquisitions Jamie Dimon rumored to be eyeing after revealing $20B war chest

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is on the prowl to further expand the nation’s largest bank – possibly by snapping up a wealth-management firm or a private credit business, bankers tell On The Money.While investors shouldn’t necessarily expect a deal imminently, players involved with bank-focused mergers and acquisitions are scrambling to come up with deals that might appeal to Dimon, sources said.The frenzy is ramping up after Dimon’s recent revelation that the bank could spend as much as $20 billion on a big acquisition, people with direct knowledge of the matter say.On its face, JPMorgan Chase seems to do it all: investment banking and commercial banking; trading, small business lending, credit cards and savings accounts.But there are gaps in its model that can be filled or grown through dealmaking.With $4.5 trillion in assets and $2.68 trillion in deposits, bankers say JPMorgan Chase has already exceeded a federal regulatory “cap” that hamstrings bank acquisition growth; barring a waiver for a government-induced bailout, it will face resistance buying a traditional bank.Private credit, which is essentially a shadow lending business with fewer regulatory controls, has hit some rough spots, but it remains a big and lucrative business for Wall Street and private equity and Dimon has mentioned expanding in this area.One private equity executive said that in the days following Dimon’s remarks, rumors circulated in PE circles that JPM might be interested in buying the Carlyle Group’s in-house private credit division, Carlyle Global Credit, if it should ever be put on the market.

Dimon has said some not-so-nice things about private credit’s well publicized issues (Dimon says he’s worried about “cockroaches” infecting the business.) That said, I am told he likes the business when it’s run well like Carlyle’s global credit business that manages about $200 billion in assets (stuff like private lines of credit, various types of non-banking lendi...