JPMorgan sees broad-based recovery, more interest in China

[HONG KONG] JPMorgan Chase is seeing a broad-based recovery in China and growing interest from foreign investors seeking to diversify, according to Rita Chan, co-senior country officer for China.

“The development in the last 12 months have definitely been encouraging,” Chan said in an interview with Bloomberg Television from the lender’s Global China Summit in Shanghai.

Chan said there has been an increase in foreign direct investments and a “broad-based recovery in liquidity and volume” in China.

JPMorgan has poured significant resources into building out its China business and is the only Wall Street bank that attained full control of its futures, securities and asset management businesses in China in a short span of three years.

Over the past years, the lender has reshuffled leadership and scaled back in China and Hong Kong, acknowledging that the expansion was taking longer than anticipated, even as chief executive officer Jamie Dimon has said he remains committed.

Wall Street firms have overall pulled back from China, with their combined exposure, which includes lending, trading and investments, slumping by about a fifth.

There are now signs of business picking up, with increased share sales in Hong Kong and mainland China. Chinese leaders have also reiterated commitments to their financial opening and unleashed stimulus to get the economy back on track.

JPMorgan appointed Chan and Alan Ho, also Asia-Pacific chief financial officer, in April last year to fill the vacancy left by Mark Leung, who resigned as China CEO after a 25-year stint at the firm. BLOOMBERG