Nupur Anand
NEW YORK (Reuters) – China’s economy is showing signs of improvement and will strengthen the bank’s China business after a period of weakness, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief executive officer for asset and wealth management, Mary Ardos, said on Wednesday.
U.S. companies are reassessing their prospects in China as China’s economic recovery becomes uneven and ties between the two countries deteriorate. For banks, a downturn in capital markets is weighing on activity there and investors are closely watching the impact of government support measures on the economy.
“The business environment in China has been tough in recent years, but sentiment started to turn bullish in March,” Erdos said in an interview at the bank’s headquarters in New York.
China’s consumer spending is showing signs of recovery and while the country is still grappling with real estate problems, the government is looking for ways to solve them, both “positive signs,” she said.
Erdas, one of four executives recently named by the bank’s board as possible successors to Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon after he steps down, visited China last month and spoke at the bank’s annual Global China Summit in Shanghai.
He said attendance was up from last year, with more than 3,000 delegates from 33 countries attending, as clients considered whether to resume investing in China.
“Long-term investors know and understand that China is a very important market, and we continue to grow and expand our business in China,” she said, without providing further details.
JPMorgan became the first foreign company to own a brokerage in China in 2021 and its asset management unit in the country employs 400 people. Reuters reported last month that it was among banks to make job cuts in China this year.
Speaking in Shanghai last month, Dimon said some of the bank’s investment banking businesses in China have “declined sharply” in recent years, the Financial Times reported.
Erdos, whose companies manage more than $5 trillion in assets, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and wealthy American tycoons in New York in September to discuss investing in Ukraine, where he has visited four times.
The bank advises President Zelenskiy on economic policy and growth, and Finance Minister Erdos gathered more billionaires in Davos, Switzerland, in January to discuss aid and investment opportunities for Ukraine after the end of the war with Russia.
“We are working on development issues that are crucial to their reconstruction efforts and are exploring ways to connect local customers and businesses once a peaceful resolution is reached,” Erdas said.
The World Bank estimates that Ukraine could need around $500 billion to rebuild its economy.
Erdős has a personal interest in Ukraine and plans to visit Poland in 2022 with his family, including his three daughters, to volunteer at an orphanage for Ukrainian children.
According to a fundraising website set up by her family and reviewed by the bank, she and her family have raised more than $92,000 for charities helping families in Ukraine.
Inheritance
JPMorgan shares have risen about 17% so far this year, lagging other big banks but outperforming the broader S&P index of bank stocks.
After more than 18 years at the helm of America’s largest bank, Dimon said he plans to step down within five years.
Along with Erdoz, other candidates for the chief executive position are Jennifer Piepszak and Troy Lohrbaugh, co-chief executives of commercial and investment banking, and Marianne Lake, chief executive officer of consumer and community banking.
If JPMorgan appoints a woman as CEO, she will be just the second woman to lead a major Wall Street bank after Citigroup’s Jane Fraser was appointed in 2021.
“Building a diverse workplace isn’t something that can be done in a day,” Eldors says. “We’ve been doing this work for decades.”
(Reporting by Nupur Anand in New York; Editing by Lanang Nguyen and Jan Harvey)