JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon downplayed the impact of the crisis in UK pension fund liability-driven investment (LDI) hedging during the bank’s quarterly earnings call on October 14, without dismissing the risk of further risk management accidents entirely.
“The LDI thing was a bump in the road,” Dimon said, before admitting: “I was surprised to see how much leverage there was in some of those pension plans.”
Dimon highlighted the opportunity for JPMorgan’s traders from a spike in spreads on collateralized loan obligation (CLO) deals that was exacerbated by the selling of assets by UK pension funds as they scrambled to raise cash to cover collateral calls on hedges.
“I want our people, when they [CLOs] gapped out like 300 or 400 basis points, I want them to be willing to buy,” he said.
Bankers further down the food chain who deal directly with funds are also keen to look for the bright side of the UK’s debt crisis.
One head of cross-asset sales to UK pension funds and insurance companies highlights to Euromoney the business opportunity as risk is shifted from one side of his client coverage to the other.
“Insurers are fine, they’ve not really had any issues and they are seeing hundreds of billions worth of pension funds that are going to be coming to market to be sold to them,” he says.
