Setting its eye on global expansion, American multinational investment bank and financial services company JPMorgan is ready with the blueprint to hire its biggest teams of retail bankers in Germany to maintain a steadier revenue stream.
Earlier in a similar foray outside the United States, JPMorgan entered the British market with a digital-only retail offering last year and executives have signalled their aim is to expand this to other countries.
The company is now tracking the success of the rollout before making a decision on exactly where and to what extent it will offer the business elsewhere. Meanwhile, the hires in Germany are likely to be used across different locations.
On Thursday, JPMorgan posted a job for a ‘people project lead’ in international consumer banking. “Join us in Berlin as we embark on this exciting chapter in the continued growth of our business,” the company posted.
US banks have been looking to offset lucrative but at times volatile returns in investment banking with steadier revenues, although they face a competitive consumer market dominated by local incumbents, where margins are thin.
Banks, which are already suffering from a drop in corporate dealmaking, could also see their retail operations struggle to expand as unemployment rises, inflation bites and consumers tighten their spending.
JPMorgan, whose European Union hub is in the German financial centre of Frankfurt, has become one of the largest advisory banks in Germany in recent years, and is expanding to target more of the medium-sized firms that form the backbone of Europe’s largest economy.
It has hired 200 people in Germany so far this year for its broader business, but a retail push would mark a new front in another saturated market dominated by local savings banks and well-known brands like Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank.
JPMorgan expects to lose $450 million on its international consumer business in 2022, according to slides that accompanied a presentation earlier this year, with the venture projected to break even in five or six years.
Some of the job postings are based in Berlin, a technology hub that underscores the digital nature of JPMorgan’s venture.
