The traditional role of an investment banker is to provide advice on transactions and financing. But JPMorgan bankers have recently begun to realize that clients are asking the company for more than that, including how the nation’s largest bank navigates artificial intelligence and what cybersecurity practices it utilizes.
Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon had the idea to formally create a group that could give certain clients access to many of JPMorgan’s “secret sauces.” They are calling the initiative a “special advisory service,” and it will be led by Liz Meyers, who is also the global chair of investment banking, and will launch on Monday.
“These capabilities are on par or better than some specialized consulting firms,” Myers said in an interview with CNBC. “We believe this will enable executives to more effectively perform their roles and learn from our best practices.”
JP Morgan We’ve identified dozens of adjacent capabilities that we can offer our clients, ranging from investor relations to real estate selection to healthcare benefits to technology procurement. The company does not initially plan to charge fees for these services. However, if a client is looking for a more time-consuming project or ongoing service, we may negotiate some kind of fee structure.
The company said in a press release that the service is aimed at customers who “have or want to have a deep, long-term relationship with the company.” According to the release, that group could include “companies considering JPMorgan as their primary IPO advisor, long-time clients preparing for a transformative transaction, or growing middle-market clients looking to use JPMorgan as their primary operating bank.”
“More than two-thirds of our professionals work internally with people, and their No. 1 job is to make sure they’re getting results for us,” Myers said. “They’re a somewhat valuable resource, so you have to think about who’s going to get them.”
Mr. Myers, a 30-year veteran of the firm who previously served as global head of equity capital markets, will work with advisory teams and experts across JPMorgan in his expanded role. He said the special advisory services group would initially have a “small number” of people. And over time, the company could scale up if customer demand becomes significant enough.
JPMorgan is scheduled to report fourth-quarter and full-year earnings next week. LSEG estimates that JPMorgan collected $9.44 billion in investment banking fees in the year to December 11, making it No. 1 in the world with a 7.4% wallet share.
