Bankers Unleashed

For Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, it’s “game on” for clients pursuing new deals. For JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, “animal spirits will be unleashed.”

“A lot of bankers, they’re like dancing in the street, because they’ve had successive years and years of regulations, a lot of which stymied credit,” Dimon told Bloomberg Television this week. The JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive officer gave a nod to the last time Donald Trump was in the White House, when for every new regulation there was one in and two out — or even five out, he said.

When asked about the most significant future impact of a second Trump administration, Fraser said there are four T’s:

• Tempering of regulation
• Taxes
• Tariffs
• Tightening immigration

“I would put that in the perspective of a largely pro-growth agenda,” the Citigroup CEO said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

As such, her clients are ready to grow. A week ago she hosted a technology conference with roughly 110 CEOs -- and many had significant deal ambitions. “Clients are on the front foot in the States,” Fraser said. “They’re looking at driving transformation of their businesses. It is a scale game at the moment in industry after industry.”

One area she sees picking up is the private equity space, where Citigroup has been deploying resources.

In a separate conversation, Thoma Bravo’s Holden Spaht spoke to just how exuberant he thinks dealmaking might be next year.

He said many companies are looking at “dual-track” deals, where firms could either seek an initial public offering or sell themselves instead. Both options are starting to open up for private equity-backed companies. Both Fraser and Spaht said strategic buyers are looking deeper into the technology world to modernize their businesses.

“We’re building the kind of companies that are attractive to strategic buyers, financial buyers and public markets,” Spaht said. “We have a lot of companies we think are very viable IPO exits.”

Eric Zinterhofer, founding partner at Searchlight Capital, acknowledged the pressures that have been pervading the private equity industry over the past couple of years related to muted exit activity. As far as the mergers-and-acquisitions markets go, “it needs to open up,” he said. “And we’re all hopeful that it does open up.”

More on Wall Street

• Don’t miss this Bloomberg Big Take on the “flood of money” going into bank risk transfer trades, and the risk underneath the surface.
• Here is a profile of Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman’s relationship with Trump and how it has paid off.
• Behind the scenes of the decisions being made by Trump on his economic team, with Scott Bessent a key man in the mix.
• Mike Novogratz says the odds are low that the US sets up a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
• Donald Trump Jr. is joining venture capital firm 1789 Capital, which invests in conservative-leaning companies. The firm is founded and led by Donald Trump donor Omeed Malik.

More to come. Don't miss Bloomberg Open Interest daily from 9:00 am to 11:00 am New York time on Bloomberg Television. And next Thursday, I'll be sitting with Citadel founder Ken Griffin for nearly hour-long conversation at the Economic Club of New York. You'll find all the highlights on BTV. Tips, ideas and opinions at sbasak7@bloomberg.net.