Where’s J.P. Morgan falling behind? If you look at the most recent Coalition league table, you might be tempted to say cash equities sales and trading, where the bank ranks third globally. However, Jamie Dimon’s speech at last Friday’s Barclays’ Global Financial Services Conference suggested he has different priorities: Dimon thinks J.P.M could do better in the European capital markets space and is setting this as a priority for growth.
“We see opportunities even in markets which might not do particularly well,” said Dimon. “We think we could gain market share in capital markets in Europe, for example.” He went on to describe the opportunity in European capital markets as “twofold”. Firstly, European banks are pulling back. Secondly European companies are increasingly raising money by issuing bonds rather than taking out loans – a process known as disintermediation, which Goldman Sachs also plans to benefit from.
For the moment, Dimon’s right – J.P.M’s European capital markets business doesn’t look that great. Figures from Dealogic show the bank ranking third for European equity capital markets (ECM) so far this year, down from first for the same period in 2014. In debt capital markets (DCM), J.P. Morgan ranked fourth, on a par with its position in 2014.
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