JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, plans to enter Kenya and Ivory Coast this year and increase its presence in Africa, Chief Executive Jamie Dimon 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. That compares with Citigroup, which does business in nearly 180 countries and has the largest global presence among U.S. banking giants.
“We want to add one or two countries (enter or deepen presence) in Africa every two years or so,” Dimon said in an interview on Friday, before leaving for a trip to Africa.
Dimon will hold meetings in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa during the trip, Reuters reported last month.
“This will allow us to be on the ground in these countries, which gives us a lot more local knowledge and relationships,” Dimon said.
“And when we do that, we will basically cover the government, maybe some large government companies and the multinationals that are coming in there with traditional banking services,” he added.
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In Kenya and Ivory Coast, the U.S. bank will focus on commercial and investment banking, treasury services and possibly some lending, Dimon said. In these two countries, the bank has no immediate plans to offer asset and wealth management (AWM) services, which are already available in South Africa and Nigeria.
“We’re not offering AWM right now, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen in the next few years,” Dimon said.
JPMorgan’s previous aspirations to enter Ghana and Kenya in recent years have been thwarted by regulators, according to media reports.
On Monday, Kenya’s central bank said it has authorized JPMorgan to establish a representative office in the country.
In the past, “the U.S. government wasn’t very interested in banks expanding into different geographic regions because that was right after the financial crisis,” Dimon said, noting that now the U.S. is providing more support.
It is a positive move if US financial institutions expand abroad, and the government should support these efforts to compete abroad, he said, citing the broad presence of Chinese companies and saying that US companies should also be in these regions .
Leading global banks have adopted different strategies for each of the sub-Saharan markets, targeting the fastest growing areas and seeking to differentiate themselves from local and regional competitors.
For example, Standard Chartered focused on Kenya. The bank’s assets under management in the East African country grew by a quarter last year to 185.5 billion Kenyan shillings ($1.4 billion), according to the financial institution.
The expansion may not have a material impact on JPMorgan’s business in the short term, but it will be beneficial to the bank and future leaders in the long term, Dimon said.
JPMorgan is among the top five international private banks in terms of assets under management.
Por Nupur Anand
