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"This is among if not the most complex, dynamic environment I've
ever seen in my career. We've obviously been through lots of
cycles, but the confluence of the number of shocks to the
system, to me is unprecedented," he told a banking conference.
His comments come one day after JPMorgan & Chase's Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon described the challenges
facing the U.S. economy akin to an "hurricane."
Waldron said he would not use any weather analogies, but
stressed there is a series of concomitant unprecedented factors
hurting the economy, ranging from a commodity shock to an
unprecedented amount of monetary and fiscal stimulus.
Despite the challenges, the executive said the bank is confident
of achieving all its performance targets and it continues to
look for acquisition opportunities in the wealth and asset
management space, as it seeks to diversify its revenue stream.
"Valuations are making more sense, getting more interesting.
That opens up opportunity for more things to look at," he said.
Still, the COO said the priority would be to bed down the recent
acquisitions, and added that the bank is more cautious about
capital expenditure given the current macro environment.
"I would say we have a lot to integrate and a lot to operate,"
Waldron said, adding that part of his job is to make sure that
"we integrate, and we execute on those acquisitions."
The Wall Street bank is seeking to diversify its business to
make it less vulnerable to capital markets cycles. As part of
this strategy, the bank is expanding its asset and wealth
management arms.
Waldron sounded a note of caution for the capital market
activity, which he expects to be down a lot, saying the volumes
are down 70% year-over-year. But he said the M&A activity has
been more resilient.
(Reporting by Carolina Mandl and Elizabeth Dilts MarshallEditing
by Denny Thomas and Nick Zieminski)
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