In a year of financial upheaval from all sides, JPMorgan Private Bank made things look almost easy.
It managed to generate record revenue of $8.9 billion for 2022, a 16% jump year on year, and reported a pre-tax margin of 35%. Revenue in the last three months of 2022 alone was $2.4 billion, a 22% year-on-year jump that was driven by higher deposit margins on lower balances.
Credit goes to the teams run by Kam Shing Kwang, CEO of JPMorgan Private Bank in Asia, and Ulysses Lau, head of investments and engagement for the Asia private bank.
JPMorgan’s attention to the constant improvement of its digital and mobile capabilities is helping to boost client engagement and productivity simultaneously. It is also what makes possible the bank’s popular hybrid advice matrix involving in-person, customized and digitally enhanced channels favoured by the next-generation crowd.
Yet the bank also provides the old-school services preferred by legacy clients. There’s a reason JPMorgan has relationships with half of the world’s deca-billionaires, or those with wealth of more than $10 billion. Few demographics are more demanding than those in the upper echelons of private banking. For JPMorgan, this means offering the most customized solutions and ideas across the breadth of their needs: investing, trusts, estate planning, ESG strategies, family office services or philanthropic solutions.
JPMorgan Private Bank’s synergies with its investment banking business are an important selling point. This partnership is seeing a steady uptick in international transactions and collaboration revenues.
It makes for an unbeatable platform to address the institutional and corporate needs of wealth management clients. The services in greatest demand include transactions related to equity capital markets, debt capital markets and mergers and acquisitions for the corporations of private banking clients.
And then there’s the competitive advantage that JPMorgan’s Asia staff barely needs to mention: the ability to harness the 23 Wall Street financial universe. The reference here is to the address on the original headquarters in one of Manhattan’s most coveted locales. To this day, it’s known as the House of Morgan.
Being able to connect Asian clients with the seat of global finance is no small distinguishing feature. The Asia teams have access to a global platform offering connectivity, advice, research capabilities and solutions across their personal and corporate balance sheets. This includes access for UHNW clients and prospects in Asia to events and seminars in New York and beyond.
In Asia, an increasing number of events are held in Mandarin. English is core, too, as experts discuss timely topics such as China’s economic outlook, US-China relations, and macroeconomic updates across key geographies, sectors and asset classes. JPMorgan has capabilities in both languages, offering private banking clients real-time views and investment advice.
The ties to 23 Wall Street are helping JPMorgan to expand its family office business too, providing access to expertise across all lines of business, capital and deal flow. This helps to strengthen the bank’s position in Asia, creating a community of sorts to tout the range of available private transactions and shared insights into what other prominent families are thinking and doing.
The strategy for 2023 is to go further in helping families to navigate the wide array of reasons to bank with the broader firm – and to customize their personal, family office, and operating business needs.