Awards for Excellence 2019
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Transaction services is an attractive business for banks finding it harder to make money in capital markets and M&A. This is evident in North America, where investment banks have been furiously investing in their cash management and trade finance businesses to get ahead of the game. Even Goldman Sachs is keen for a seat at the transaction banking table and is planning to roll out its own cash management services soon.
But there is one bank clearly leading the way in North America: JPMorgan Chase’s bullish investment in the business coupled with a strong transaction banking team makes it North America’s best bank for transaction services.
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| Takis Georgakopoulos |
Takis Georgakopoulos, head of wholesale payments at JPMorgan, has been integral to the bank’s transaction banking success. The wholesale payments unit was created after a decision to merge its treasury business with Chase Merchant Services earlier this year. This represents the biggest wholesale payments network in the world, processing more than $6 trillion of payments daily.
“Both businesses are in essence about moving money globally, and we realized we could further scale up if our merchant and treasury services were better integrated,” says Georgakopoulos. “At the front end, ease of doing business in client onboarding and KYC [know-your-customer rules], and flexible connectivity such as API [application programme interface] development, have all been streamlined as a result of the merger – and the products we provide to our clients are overall much, much better.”
The merger will complement innovation in other areas. In September 2018 the bank launched its distributed ledger-powered interbank information network, which helps correspondent banks cut down on the time they spend on compliance and other datarelated enquiries. Around 250 banks have signed up to the network.
Overall the bank’s strategy appears to be working. In 2018, the bank’s revenue in treasury services for corporate investment banking and commercial banking combined grew to $8.8 billion from $7.3 billion in 2017. If JPMorgan Chase continues on this trajectory, next year the bank could be in the running for the global award.
