JPMorgan says no near end to financial crisis: report

The JP Morgan and Chase headquarters is seen in New York January 30, 2008.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) does not expect the U.S. financial crisis to end soon and will remain very cautious, its top executive said in comments published by a German weekly on Saturday.

"We can only speculate how deep and how long the recession in the United States will really be and how that in turn will impact banks," James Dimon told "Welt am Sonntag".

"But we are not done with the crisis for a long time," Dimon said, adding that it was not the company's job to make bets on the future.

"Imagine we would need to walk up to our shareholders one day and say, sorry but the recession in the USA is so bad, we're broke. We need to be able to rule out at all times that it will not come to that," Dimon said.

JPMorgan said last month it was on the lookout for regional banks to take over but Dimon said in the report the bank was not interested in purchasing the German consumer lending business of Citigroup Inc. (C.N).

"From my point of view today a takeover like that would be a waste of time," he said.

JPMorgan announced in March it is buying investment bank Bear Stearns BSC.N, once the fifth-largest investment bank, which collapsed after a run on the bank.

Dimon hopes the transaction to be concluded by June 30, earlier than expected, the report quoted him as saying.

(Reporting by Nicola Leske)