JPMorgan

The headline results of Euromoney's 2015 foreign exchange survey show the leading banks have been remarkably consistent, despite the upheavals in the sector. But, beneath the surface there are changes that will transform the competitive landscape of the industry. Deeper analysis of the survey results demonstrates that’s already starting to happen.

Overall market share

Soon after Bill Winters was appointed CEO of Standard Chartered, his highest-profile protégé from their shared days at JPMorgan also announced a new job.

UBS pushed into second place; majority of private banks globally expect improved revenues in 2015.

Best private banking services overall

JPMorgan’s $100 million settlement of a currency manipulation lawsuit has sparked a flood of interest from potential new claimants, and marks a new victory in their fight for compensation, according to a leading lawyer involved in negotiations.

Phil Di Iorio, CEO of JPMorgan Private Bank, talks about where his firm is seeing growth from around the globe.

Richard Madigan, chief investment officer at JPMorgan Private Bank, shares his views on oil-price surprises, and euro-exit and geopolitical concerns for the year ahead.

Revenues on the rise; More lending and discretionary mandates.

View full results index

View full results index

Development beyond its US heartland has turned JPMorgan into a global player in wealth management.

Madigan took on his role in April 2012 having joined JP Morgan in 2004. Before that he was head of emerging markets investments at Offitbank.

The US bank earnings season kicked off this week with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan’s treasury services businesses delivering solid revenues to their corporate and investment banking divisions.

Post-crisis, you can’t just run a bank in the interests of shareholders.

Regulatory sanctions are coming thick and fast at JPMorgan, with a record $11 billion fine for mortgage-market abuses in late September drawing the most attention. But reports accompanying JPMorgan’s $920 million penalty for failures surrounding its $6.2 billion London Whale loss also shed new light on the distrust and paranoia within the bank.

I am pleased to relate that finally JPMorgan is moving towards some semblance of seemly corporate governance. Perhaps senior management have been reading the Abigail with attitude column. I have been criticizing the makeup of the bank’s board since July 2009 when I wrote: ‘I find the JPMorgan board intriguing in that, although the members are impressive in their respective fields, few have in-depth financial expertise. JPMorgan is doing well today, but should it stumble the board will be scrutinized.’ I renewed my call for better corporate governance in May this year when certain investors were agitating for Jamie Dimon to split his chief executive and chairman roles. I correctly predicted that the rebellion would blow over: ‘My bet is that Dimon stays and investors back down.’ However, I did suggest that some long-standing directors with little direct financial experience – such as Ellen Futter – should go.

I am sure Jamie Dimon considers the hoo-ha about splitting the chief executive and chairman roles at JPMorgan to be an over-reaction.

Jamie Dimon comfortably survived an attempt to split his combined chairman and CEO role at JPMorgan, which will allow him to set the terms of his eventual departure from the bank. He should start by appointing a president to give a potential successor a trial run.

Character does matter in post-crisis banking; if yours is in question, it is time to get out.

Jamie Dimon’s dual role at JPMorgan has lost its sparkle and is past its sell-by date.

In January, we received news that Jes Staley, the former head of JPMorgan’s investment bank, was leaving the firm to join the hedge fund BlueMountain Capital. This story has several interesting aspects.

The doubling of Lloyd Blankfein’s bonus for 2012 and the halving of Jamie Dimon’s payout was a sign of a return of the natural order of things on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs’s CEO Blankfein was rewarded for a year when the bank finally seemed to get its mojo back, while JPMorgan CEO Dimon was punished – fairly lightly – for his failure to deal with a monumental risk-management blunder in the form of the London Whale credit derivatives trading loss of over $6 billion.

JPMorgan has backed its subsidiary with balance sheet and resources, and although the country’s economic growth has slowed the bank’s headcount has continued to rise. CEO Cláudio Berquó says that rather than becoming over-committed, the bank’s new capabilities are enabling it to adapt and build new business.

Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Barclays continue to slug it out at the top of the market-share tables for crisis-hit credit trading. But when it comes to quality over quantity, RBC Capital Markets is the firm to watch.

Bank targets benefits from greater scale; Merges corporate and investment banks

The Louisiana Municipal Police Employees Retirement System (MPERS) is suing JPMorgan for an undisclosed amount over claims the bank misled the pension fund in its FX trading activity.

Just when you thought banks’ reputations couldn’t get any worse, their standing collapses almost completely. The recent travails of JPMorgan, Barclays and HSBC will adversely affect the whole industry and raise demands to cut big banks down to size once again. But in tackling banks’ problematic complexity, let’s not forget the benefits of diversification.

JPMorgan has reshuffled its senior management team, creating a new role of chairman for investment bank chief Jes Staley, as part of its plan to align its investment banking, treasury and securities services, and global corporate banking businesses under one division.

Some stories cause you to raise an eyebrow, others make you gasp out loud. In the past year, there have been a few gasp-out-loud stories.