JP Morgan Announces Expansion Plans for Australia And New Zealand
JP Morgan has announced further expansion plans for its Treasury & Securities Services businesses which will see the recruitment of 100 additional staff across Australia and New Zealand and establishment of a new Australian headquarters within the heart of the Westfield Sydney City project in Sydney’s central business district (CBD) in 2012.
The expansion follows JP Morgan’s recent purchase of ANZ’s Custodian Services business, which delivers access to more than 100 clients and AU$99bn in assets under custody. More than 170 former ANZ staff have transitioned to JP Morgan as part of the acquisition, expanding JP Morgan’s presence in the strategically important financial centres of Melbourne and Wellington.
Integrated banking and securities solutions
A key theme driving the division’s local expansion is the provision of integrated banking and securities services solutions to the corporate and institutional sectors. Recent deals illustrating this trend include a local AU$6bn superannuation fund with US domiciled assets requiring operating bank accounts to meet its US domestic payment needs (particularly federal and state taxes) in addition to its existing custody requirements; one of Australia’s largest infrastructure fund managers, whose requirements included custody services and bank accounts to support US dollar cash payments such as payroll and local operating requirements; a large international insurer who in addition to custody needed a liquidity solution that provided them with enhanced returns on available cash (in both Australia and New Zealand) and another large ASX-listed investment manager who has bundled both custody services and Australian dollar demand deposit accounts.
Jane Perry, chief executive officer (CEO), JP Morgan Treasury & Securities Services, Australia and New Zealand, has confirmed the division had already hired more than 50 new employees across its local taxation, business analytics and client servicing in the past several months in response to client demand. Around 100 additional hires are expected to be made across a wide cross-section of the business over the coming year.
Key areas of innovation this year will include the rollout of escrow services – a new offering in the Australian and New Zealand market and more sophisticated approaches to derivatives servicing.