JPMorgan is making a move that has some European transaction bankers shaking in their boots.
A year ago, the US bank announced that it would be expanding its commercial banking business to cover Europe and Asia. The target was and is mid-cap and middle-market corporates (with a capitalization of between around $250 million and a few billion) – the types of companies the bank hopes will flock to it, eager to leverage the bank’s global network and ambitious investment plans.
“When an American investment banking giant says that they are interested in the mid-cap and middle-market corporate space in Europe, we are going to get nervous,” says one transaction banker at a European bank based in Paris.
“We don’t have deep pockets like JPMorgan,” says another transaction banker in Frankfurt. “They have money to spend while we have to be incredibly disciplined in this current environment. Things are getting a lot tougher for us.”
Is this all part of JPMorgan’s plan: to compete for and win corporate business from its peers in Europe?
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Andrew Kresse, |
“This is not our intention,” says Andrew Kresse, head of corporate client banking and specialized industries (CCBSI), international banking for JPMorgan.