Phil Di Iorio |
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Further reading |
Despite Europe’s economic challenges, Di Iorio says the continent is providing opportunities for private banks.
“We are seeing a lot of liquidity events in Europe through the sale of businesses," he says. "Clients are repositioning themselves in other parts of the world and that creates opportunities for global players.”
In particular, the UK, France and Italy have been strong markets for JPMorgan Private Bank during the past three years. “Italy is one of our fastest growth markets globally right now," says Di Iorio. "There has been a lot of M&A activity and cash-outs there, but the local banks are balance-sheet constrained."
Di Iorio says the mistakes of some US players who have gone into Europe, or vice versa, is to enter the region without the right people, services and platform. “One of the lessons we have learned is that you cannot go into local markets and expect to succeed without domestic services and products," he says. "You have to come with it all – bring the people to provide the services and then invest in the platform to service clients across the balance sheet.”
Other areas of focus geographically have been Asia, Latin America and the US west coast.
“Northern California is the fastest-growing market in the US and the entrepreneurial industry there is going to continue to be a great source of growth," says Di Iorio. "Over the last five years, we’ve almost tripled staff there and two years ago appointed Jeremy Geller and Christine Leong Connors to lead the region.”
Asia and LatAm have had double-digit asset growth annually since 2011 for the bank, while assets in northern California have nearly doubled since 2011.
