- JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon recently said that the company is going to be “much more aggressive in acquisitions across the board”
At JPMorgan’s recent annual investor day, CEO Jamie Dimon said that the company is going to be “much more aggressive in acquisitions across the board” according to Business Insider. And JPMorgan is considering mergers and acquisitions as a major part of its growth strategy for its asset and wealth management initiatives. Plus the company is planning to hire over 500 front-office employees for that unit in 2020.
In December, JPMorgan had restructured its wealth management arm of the company to make it more competitive against Morgan Stanley and Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. Dimon added that the company would be much more
It is unknown what businesses Dimon was interested in snapping up. Interestingly, Morgan Stanley announced it was buying E-Trade for $13 billion several days after the presentation. And Franklin Resources and Legg Mason recently announced they were merging in a $4.5 billion deal.
“We’re looking at everything,” said Mary Callahan Erdoes, Chief Executive Officer of J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management at the event via Business Insider. “But we’re looking for adjacent capabilities. We’re not looking for scale. We don’t need it. We’ve got what we need, we want to just keep growing what we have. We’re very selective.”
JPMorgan currently has about 1,000 investment specialists across asset management and 6,500 wealth advisers. And in the US, JPMorgan has about 3,700 advisers across 5,000 branches. In the US, JPMorgan plans to expand in 14 areas, including areas of Alabama, Nebraska, and Iowa. Plus the wealth business will also grow its presence in Minneapolis, Massachusetts, and South Carolina.
While JPMorgan manages about $2.4 trillion in assets, it trails behind other firms like Morgan Stanley — which has $2.7 trillion under just its wealth management business.
