Throughout the financial crisis, JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) has been heralded as the beacon of light on Wall Street, managing to insulate itself from the subprime mess that rocked Citigroup (NYSE: C) and others along the way. Through that tumultuous time, the house that Dimon built managed to make key acquisitions (particularly the former Bear Stearns) with an eye on changing the model of the firm.
Dimon, under the wing of Sandy Weill for so many years at Citi, is a master planner – now, we learn that the next phase of that plan for JP Morgan will be launch a global corporate bank.
While JP Morgan has achieved significant success in nearly every business line, commercial banking had remained its soft spot (in addition to retail brokerage), as compared to fellow behemoths Citigroup and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC). Now, though, the firm is launching the global corporate banking unit which is aimed at selling loans and commercial banking services to multinational corporations. The firm already boasts an impressive client list, and in an economy where firms are nearly begging for credit, this plan may prove to be it’s most fruitful yet.
In addition to the BRIC economies, it is expected that the firm will similarly focus on developing the bank in the U.K., Germany and Switzerland in the first wave of countries it targets.
Greg Guyett, JPMorgan’s head of Japan will move to London to lead the new unit. In an interview, he commented “We are doing this now for a couple of reasons … to balance our growth and increase the portion of our revenues that comes from outside the U.S. and from emerging markets in particular; and because, after the crisis, a number of our competitors are challenged.”
If history serves as a precedent, JP Morgan Chase will soon be a leader in yet another niche of the industry.
