Syndicated loans: When Jimmy means Chase

Does your company need a big loan, fast? Those in the know reckon Jimmy - Chase's James Lee - is your man. At Chemical, Lee led the market in US syndicated loans even before the merger with Chase. Now his team is dominant, and the most powerful financier since Michael Milken is set on expanding further, offering corporates package deals. But do they want or need them? And if Jimmy's empire gets bigger won't they lose the personal service that makes him so appealing? Stephen Neish reports

His Chase business card reads James Bainbridge Lee, Jr. On Wall Street, he’s simply known as Jimmy. In his trademark blue shirt, white collar and cuffs and silver-dollar braces, he looks more like the investment bankers he is trying to beat than a traditional money lender. More Gekko than McGillicuddy.

A Chemical man through and through, Lee has yet fully to come to terms with his old bank’s merger with Chase, despite the Chase logo being on everything from the garish red entrance lobby of the Park Avenue headquarters building to the wrappers of the sugar that comes with the morning coffee.

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