JPMorgan

The award for the best international private bank in the Nordics and Baltics goes to JPMorgan Private Bank this year. Among other things, the US lender impressed the judging panel with the philanthropic commitments it has facilitated for clients in the region.

For its mix of global capability with local expertise and philanthropic efforts, JPMorgan wins the award for Sweden’s best international private bank.

Few things matter more to investors than clarity and foresight. JPMorgan Private Bank's investment strategy team has established itself as an essential navigator, steering clients away from market pitfalls and towards opportunity.

Traditionally, the route to acquiring new clients was achieved via the expansion of an adviser’s personal network. This was cultivated by doing the rounds, attending events and conferences, and through referrals. Business was steadily attained, then systematically, over years and even generations, retained.

JPMorgan Private Bank clients enjoy the best of both worlds: an intimate relationship with a US lender that is allied to the power of a genuinely global financial leader. It is led by Mary Callahan Erdoes.

JPMorgan Private Bank says that it has “always been intentional about engaging future generations”. People are transitory and money can be too, but it doesn’t have to be. Any family knows wealth can be lost as easily as it can be won, and consistently falling on the right side of that equation means engaging the next generation, and the one after that.

“Philanthropy is in our DNA.” So says JPMorgan Private Bank, which for more than 160 years has served as a philanthropy adviser and investment manager to many of the world’s leading charitable institutions and philanthropists.

Luring star bankers from rivals – like Citi’s appointment of JPMorgan veteran Viswas Raghavan – can bring hidden costs beyond the expense of replacing stock options for the lucky new hire.

Chief executive Jane Fraser has been true to her promise of a marquee hire to run Citi’s banking division, with the appointment today of JPMorgan veteran Viswas Raghavan. He brings a wealth of both transactional and operational management experience, but the symbolism of his arrival may be just as important.

Management changes expand the responsibilities of Marianne Lake and Jennifer Piepszak, lead candidates to one day head JPMorgan, but there is another contender.

Opposition to the proposed Basel III endgame for US banks is now so widespread that a climb down by the Federal Reserve is likely. Wall Street bankers like Jamie Dimon can stop crying wolf about increased capital requirements and think carefully about publicly threatening their regulators.

They already dominate the investment banking business in Europe, and now the leading US banks have their eyes on an even bigger prize. They see their vast investments in the digital technology transforming payments and transaction services and their retained global presences as the keys to winning even greater revenues from Europe’s midsize corporates.

Siemens is anchor client for a new rules-based approach to banking.

The annual Senate quizzing of US big bank chief executives threw up all the usual favourite partisan arguments, but little else. If this is oversight, it often lacks insight.

JPMorgan has expanded its footprint in the non-deliverable forwards (NDF) space, supporting pricing capabilities across a wide range of currencies including seven Latin American pairs (BRL, MXN, ARS, CLP, COP, PEN, UYU) as well as frontier-market currencies such as the Costa Rican colón, Dominican peso, and Guatemalan quetzal.

Flexibility and parameterization are expected to become key differentiators for FX execution algos as the market continues to evolve. JPMorgan’s algo suite offers both in abundance.

JPMorgan’s global commercial real estate revenue grew to $806 million in the second quarter of 2023, from $642 million in the first quarter.

Banks including NatWest and JPMorgan are struggling to put out reputational risk-management fires.

BlackRock, JPMorgan and McKinsey are working on plans for a new development finance institution focused on Ukraine’s reconstruction. The project has already had to temper some ambitions, but its advisers still hope it can propel flows of private-sector money to Ukraine in years to come.

Good banks do not collapse in times of turmoil. But the best banks do more than that – they are so buttressed against stress that when it strikes, they not only emerge unscathed but can act decisively in support of the whole sector. JPMorgan was that bank in March 2023, able to play that role because of its consistently superior performance.

In the US, JPMorgan has 55 dedicated private banking offices, from Austin to Seattle, and Cincinnati to Fort Lauderdale. Elsewhere, it focuses heavily on serving high and ultra-high net-worth customers in Europe, where it has eight offices, including the UK and Germany, Asia, through Hong Kong and Singapore, and Latin America, with clients served out of Miami, New York and Switzerland.

Jamie Dimon puts a limit on staff travel to one of JPMorgan’s more exotic branches.

JPMorgan has cleaned up in a deal that sees the regulators waive their own cap on 10% deposit ownership.

JPMorgan’s AI model to interpret central bank messaging came out just as it emerged that Jerome Powell had been pranked into discussing policy with Russian provocateurs. Euromoney’s distinctly obvious heuristics model (D’Oh!) might be needed.

In a year of financial upheaval from all sides, JPMorgan Private Bank made things look almost easy.

Of many information needs today, two of the most prominent for wealthy investors are insight and analysis that help guide them through volatile and uncertain markets, and identify opportunities to invest sustainably.

Supporting its awards for the world’s best private bank and best for ultra-high net-worth individuals, JPMorgan’s power and penetration in serving North America’s UHNW segment – the largest globally by number of individuals and total value of wealth – makes it the clear winner in this category for the judges.

JPMorgan Private Bank wins this year’s top award, as well as being named the world’s best private bank for ultra-high-net-worth individuals 2023, and the world’s best private bank for investment research 2023.

Interest rate risk management has been complicated by the fall in yields after the US bailout of SVB’s depositors. Clients may feel that hedging chiefly benefits Wall Street dealers rather than themselves.

Patents are a high-profile demonstration of a bank’s commitment to innovation, but they are not the only option for those looking to encourage new ways of thinking.