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Rishi Sunak nominated JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon and former Google chairman Eric Schmidt for honors in the United Kingdom, people familiar with the matter said, as the British prime minister enters his final weeks in office.
Officials were instructed to start the process in mid-May, one of the people said, with the proposal passed through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
The UK Foreign Office handles honors for non-UK citizens, including honorary knighthoods. The process involves less scrutiny than the route for UK citizens handled by the Cabinet Office and its vetting committees, according to officials. All honors must be sealed by King Charles III.
It was unclear what level of honor, if any, Dimon and Schmidt would ultimately receive. Both men are US citizens. One of Sunak’s ministers said Dimon would be “a strong candidate” for a knighthood.
The honor is given to individuals who make an “outstanding contribution in any field of activity”.
Dimon is Wall Street’s longest-serving chief executive, known for weathering the 2008 financial crisis and steering JPMorgan to become the largest US bank by assets.
Schmidt led the search giant for a decade as it grew from a start-up to one of Silicon Valley’s top firms; Since then he has spent time in artificial intelligence, US national security and philanthropy.
A person close to the prime minister said that Dimon would not receive any honor in the UK and that there was no process in train.
Downing Street, FCDO and JPMorgan declined to comment. A spokesman for Schmidt did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The proposed honors for Dimon and Schmidt followed the announcement in March that Stephen Schwarzman, the founder of asset manager Blackstone, would receive an honorary British knighthood.
A British diplomat said it “wouldn’t be that surprising” if the honors handed out by the UK’s Tory administration had a “distinct financial sector flavour”.
They noted that Sunak had lived in the US and worked in finance before becoming an MP in 2015. Sunak worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and then at hedge fund TCI.
Sunak has also shown an interest in the technology sector, pushing to make the UK a leader in AI and hosting the first major global AI security summit at Bletchley Park last year.
The prime minister has been criticized by his rivals for keeping a green card in the US until 2021, long after he first entered the government as a minister in 2018. He and his wife, Akshata Murty, own a apartment in Santa Monica, California.
UK opinion polls show Sunak’s Conservatives trailing opposition Labor by 21 points, according to the Financial Times poll tracker, indicating Sir Keir Starmer is likely to enter Downing Street after the 4th general election July.
Sunak has insisted he will stay in the UK even if he and his Conservative party are voted out of office.
Previous recipients of UK knighthoods include Disney boss Bob Iger in 2022 and media mogul Michael Bloomberg in 2014. Foreign nationals who have been awarded a knighthood or the female equivalent award do not referred to as “Sir” or “Dame”.
Dimon attended Sunak’s global investment summit at Hampton Court Palace in London for A-list CEOs and investors in November. Last month during a trip to the UK he told Sky News he had “tremendous respect” for Sunak.
But Dimon also confirmed he had also met Starmer, describing both UK politicians as “pro-business” and their parties as growth-focused.
Last year Schmidt made a joint donation of £16 million to UK Biobank, a biomedical database, along with Citadel chief executive Ken Griffin.
The King’s Birthday Honors list, which is vetted by honors committees made up of senior civil servants and independent members, will be published later this month.
FCDO honors, however, may be issued on an ad hoc basis. Separately, outgoing prime ministers usually draw up farewell honors to recognize close allies, which are not vetted by honors committees but submitted to the Cabinet Office for “honesty and propriety” checks.