JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon to visit Africa in growth push

By David Lewis, Nupur Anand, Duncan Miriri

NAIROBI/NEW YORK (Reuters) -JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon plans to travel to Africa in mid-October in a push by the biggest U.S. lender to expand on the continent, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, his first trip there in seven years.    

Dimon is expected to visit Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Ivory Coast during the trip next month, two of the sources said. JPMorgan already has offices in South Africa and Nigeria where it offers asset and wealth management and well as commercial and investment banking services.

Overseas markets have been a key focus area to generate growth for JPMorgan — which has assets of over $4.1 trillion and operations in more than 100 countries. 

In 2018, Dimon said the lender would look at entering Ghana and Kenya. Local regulators in those two countries had blocked JPMorgan’s growth plans, according to media reports.

Kenyan President William Ruto said in February 2023 after a meeting with a senior JPMorgan executive that the bank had committed to opening a new office in Nairobi.

It was not immediately clear how close JPMorgan is to opening in these countries. 

Major global banks are seeking to gain a bigger share of sovereign debt and corporate transactions in Africa, analysts said, while also aiming to serve more international companies that have operations on the continent, said Eric Musau, head of research at Nairobi-based Standard Investment Bank. 

International lenders are seeking to grow their revenues by offering wealth management services that provide access to investments like offshore equity, debt and mutual funds, Musau added.

Banking giants are also offering private banking services, seeking to differentiate themselves from local and regional lenders that are prevalent in retail markets.

While most consumers on the continent have access to financial services through local and regional commercial banks, private banking “is where the next evolution will be,” said Francis Mwangi, CEO of Kestrel Capital, a Nairobi brokerage. 

JPMorgan is among the top five international private banks by assets under supervision and growth in overseas markets is a key priority, it said in May.

In the last five years, about 700 bankers have been involved in expanding into 27 new locations worldwide, generating $2 billion in revenue for its commercial and investment bank, JPMorgan’s President Daniel Pinto told investors in May.

JPMorgan has an advisory board of international executives and former policy makers that have links to Africa, including Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who founded the Africa Governance Initiative.      Major global lenders have adopted differing strategies for individual sub-Saharan markets, targeting the fastest-growing areas while seeking to distinguish themselves from local and regional competitors.      Standard Chartered has focused on markets like Kenya. Assets under management in the East African nation grew by a quarter last year to 185.5 billion Kenyan shillings ($1.4 billion), it said.

The lender sold its subsidiaries in Angola, Cameroon, Gambia and Sierra Leone last year.

($1 = 128.5000 Kenyan shillings)