JPMorgan wins our credit derivatives award for the second year in a row, holding off not just long-term arch-rival Deutsche Bank, but also Morgan Stanley, which has vastly increased its business and wins the most improved category.
JPMorgan, though, remains the standard for the market to beat. It trades over 1,600 names globally and will do so in size, having traded both sides of the market with ticket sizes of $250 million. Derivatives brokers GFI and Creditex both rank it as the number one trader on their platforms. It is also, by its own reckoning, executing more trades on Morgan Stanley's synthetic Tracers index than the latter is doing itself. "We have scale in all different areas and we're integrated into all of the credit businesses," says Andy Brindle, global head of credit derivatives at JPMorgan.
With such a powerful franchise, accounting for over 30% of all credit derivatives volume, you might expect JPMorgan to be defending its territory against newcomers. Far from it. The bank is in fact the most active in trying to expand the market, to bring in new players and users, and to define market standards.