Written by Nupur Anand
NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. lender, plans to expand its footprint in Africa by entering Kenya and Ivory Coast this year, Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said. told Reuters.
International markets are a growth area for JPMorgan, which has more than $4.2 trillion in assets and operates in more than 100 countries. By comparison, Citigroup operates in about 180 countries and has the largest footprint of any major U.S. bank in the world.
“We’re looking to add (enter or deepen our presence in) one or two countries in Africa every few years,” Dimon said Friday by phone from New York before departing on a trip to Africa. he said. The countries and pace of expansion have not been reported so far.
Reuters reported last month that Dimon would hold meetings in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa during his tour.
“This puts us on the ground in these countries and gives us more local knowledge and relationships,” Dimon said.
“And if you do that, you’re basically covering the government, maybe some large government companies, and the multinational companies that are providing traditional banking services there,” he added.
Dimon said the company will focus on commercial and investment banking, treasury services and possibly some lending in Kenya and Ivory Coast. In these two countries, there are no immediate plans to offer asset and asset management (AWM) services, which are already offered in South Africa and Nigeria.
“We’re not doing AWM right now, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be doing AWM in the next few years,” Dimon said.
According to media reports, JPMorgan had tried to enter Ghana and Kenya in the past few years but was blocked by regulators.
On Monday, the Central Bank of Kenya announced that it had authorized JPMorgan to establish a representative office there.
Dimon said that in the past, “partly in the aftermath of the financial crisis, the U.S. government wasn’t too keen on banks expanding into other regions,” but now the U.S. is more cooperative. pointed out.
He said it was a positive move for U.S. financial institutions to expand overseas and that the government should support such efforts to compete overseas, citing the widespread presence of Chinese companies and He also said that they should expand into these locations.
Leading global financial institutions are adopting different strategies for each sub-Saharan market, targeting fast-growing regions while differentiating themselves from local and regional competitors.
For example, Standard Chartered focuses on Kenya. The company said its assets under management in the East African country rose by a quarter last year to 185.5 billion Kenyan shillings ($1.4 billion).
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While this expansion may not have a material impact on JPMorgan’s business in the short term, it will be beneficial to the company and its future leaders in the long term, Dimon said.
JPMorgan ranks among the top five international private banks in terms of assets under supervision.
Over the past five years, about 700 bankers have helped expand into 27 new locations around the world, generating $2 billion in revenue for the commercial and investment bank, executives told investors in May.
(Reporting by Nupur Anand in New York; Additional reporting by Hereward Holland, David Lewis and Duncan Miriri in Nairobi; Editing by Ranan Nguyen and Lincoln Feast.)
