Jamie Dimon sees competition everywhere. And the JPMorgan Chase & Co. boss is pledging to pay what’s necessary to come out ahead in Wall Street’s war for talent.

The billionaire ticked off a long list of rivals on Friday’s fourth-quarter earnings call.

“There’s global competition, there’s non-bank competition, there’s direct private-lending competition, there’s Jane Street competition, there’s Citadel competition, there’s fintech competition, there’s PayPal competition,” Dimon said. “It’s a lot of competition. And we intend to win. And sometimes that means you got to spend a few bucks.”

Dimon didn’t stop there: “We want to be very, very competitive on pay,” especially for “top bankers and traders and managers, who, I should say, by the way, did an extraordinary job in the last couple of years.” If all of that “squeezes margins a little bit for shareholders, so be it.” 

The Wall Street giant isn’t alone in paying up for staff. Citigroup Inc. increased salaries for junior bankers in the U.S., boosting base pay to US$110,000 for first-year analysts and US$125,000 for those in their second and third years, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. “There’s a lot of competitive pressure out there on wages and pay,” Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason said Friday.