Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan, has sharply criticised US and global rules implemented since the credit crisis erupted two years ago, saying they will drive up costs and squeeze credit to a whole swathe of investors.

His comments, media reports said, came after international bank regulators meeting in Basel, Switzerland, agreed at the weekend on new capital standards for banks in a bid to make the financial system more robust. Earlier this year, the US administration of president Barack Obama signed into law sweeping controls on bank activities, splitting off some of the trading functions of banks and curbing their involvement in areas such as hedge funds.

To date, the impact of such rules on private banking and wealth management has been difficult to judge; the US Dodd-Frank bill, now law, is being watched for the effect it may have on regulatory oversight of institutions such as family offices, among others.

Dimon, however, nevertheless stressed that JP Morgan supported the broad thrust of both the new US financial law and this weekend’s Basel agreement. He said the giant US bank, parent of a large private bank, will not need to raise capital or make drastic changes to its business model.

But he was scathing about US legislation in particular.

“It is a real pain. It is an operational nightmare,” he told investors at the Barclays financial services conference in New York. As reported elsewhere, Bank of America Merrill Lynch CEO Brian Moynihan also spoke at the event yesterday.

“It is highly ill-conceived, doesn’t reduce risk at all. As a matter of fact, it probably complicates it for some [customers],” Dimon said.

He said hedge funds and other derivatives users would have to deal with two separate legal entities depending on the type of securities they trade in.