J.P. Morgan has today launched a full prime brokerage offering for clients in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The investment bank now has the local infrastructure in place to serve international and regional clients across the entire spectrum of both cash and synthetic products for the first time.
The build-out of the European platform reflects the firm's wider strategy to invest in Prime Services and offer a full suite of products for hedge fund clients globally.
"This is a key milestone for our international business," said Sandie O'Connor, Global head of Prime Services at J.P. Morgan. "These local capabilities will allow our international clients to have integrated access to the broader J.P. Morgan franchise across asset classes, alongside services including equity financing, securities lending, clearing, and settlement."
J.P. Morgan has a dedicated team rolling out the new platform to clients from across its Prime Brokerage business. In addition, the firm continues to invest in experienced new hires including Christian Erickson who heads a new Client Experience unit globally, having recently joined from UBS where he was Chief Operating Officer of Prime Brokerage. His appointment follows other strategic hires made in Europe last year, including Brian Bisesi, formerly of Barclays Capital, who heads Sales for prime brokerage in the region; and Kumar Panja, previously with Goldman Sachs, who heads Strategic Consulting.
"Whether clients are based in Europe or simply operating in the region, our aim is to deliver the high level of service that they have come to expect from J.P. Morgan," said Andrea Angelone, Global co-head of Prime Brokerage. "We have a pipeline of new and existing clients ready to come on board, ranging from large, pedigree start-ups to the more established institutional funds in the industry."
J.P. Morgan boosted its prime brokerage capability when it acquired Bear Stearns in 2008. This complemented the firm's existing financing, cash management and custodial services worldwide. Since then, it has invested heavily in integrating its platform, and continued to gain clients and market share. Consequently, in both 2010 and 2011, Absolute Return magazine ranked J.P. Morgan as the number one Prime Broker in the Americas by hedge fund assets, and Global Custodian magazine gave the firm 51 "Best in class" awards in its 2010 Prime Brokerage survey.