In brief

29 Mar 2021

JP Morgan Wealth Management has announced plans to hire 300 Black and Latinx advisers by 2025, as part of its move to serve more Black and Latinx clients and ramp up diverse adviser hiring.

This strategy, which builds on the firm’s $30bn commitment to advance racial equality, will consist of partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and initiatives to encourage internal mobility.

Additionally, it will include the roll out of resources to diverse employees to assist them in the development of their career.

JP Morgan US Wealth Management CEO Kristin Lemkau said: “We want to drive a step change in the representation of financial advisers at JP Morgan. We have made progress in recent years, and hiring 300 Black and Latinx advisers will accelerate that progress materially.

“Becoming a financial adviser is a great career – they help clients build their wealth, they have strong financial upside and it offers great career flexibility. We hope more people will choose to become advisers and choose to work here.”

The aim is to add 185 full time positions, specifically for this programme, by 2025.

29 Mar 2021

Schroders has acquired the remaining minority stake in wealth management firm Benchmark Capital, which administers more than £17bn in assets on behalf of over 1,000 advisers.

The British fund manager first invested in Benchmark in 2016. The latest move follows Schroders’ strategic goal to develop its wealth management offering.

Founded in 2003, Benchmark provides a spectrum of services to British financial advisers, including network services, platform, and CRM technology, and managed portfolio services. It also offers succession management for advisers, through business sale.

In the past few years, the company has been accelerating its growth through both organic and inorganic initiatives.

26 Mar 2021

Credit Suisse is reportedly investigating the role of its executive board member, including CEO Thomas Gottstein, as part of its probe related to the Greensill fund scandal.

The Swiss lender launched an internal investigation earlier this month after it came under regulators’ lens following the insolvency of the Greensill Capital.

Credit Sussie, which was a key source of funding for the British financial services firm, was associated with selling around $10bn worth of Greensill-created securities through its asset management unit.

26 Mar 2021

Financial planning software company RightCapital and Broadridge Financial Solutions have partnered to offer financial planning software to enterprise-level clients.

RightCapital will combine its platform with Broadridge’s wealth management expertise, insights and data to help large enterprises enter the financial planning space.

Broadridge Wealth Management head said Mike Alexander said: “We look forward to working with RightCapital to offer this innovative financial planning software to our clients.

“We are expanding our suite of wealth technology solutions to increase advisor productivity, optimise operational efficiency and enhance the investor experience.”

25 Mar 2021

DWS Group, the asset management arm of Deutsche Bank, is reportedly set to cut office space in Frankfurt as its employees continue to work from home amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg, the asset manager will give up offices it currently has in the ‘Die Welle’ building by the end of the month.

A person familiar with the matter revealed that the change will affect around 200 workspaces.

The pandemic is ‘forcing us to rethink some of our plans and decisions’ on our office locations, DWS COO Mark Cullen has been quoted as saying in the memo.

25 Mar 2021

Credit Suisse has decided to pull out from the domestic wealth management business in Austria following a strategic business assessment.

The move forms part of the Swiss wealth manager’s strategy to concentrate more on business with UHNW and corporate clients in its European wealth management arm, which shows ‘significant growth potential’.

Credit Suisse said it will serve its Austria-booked UHNW clients from Luxembourg, while HNW clients will be referred to Liechtensteinische Landesbank (LLB) Österreich.

LLB entered the Austrian market in 2009 with the establishment of LLB Österreich.

The transaction remains subject to antitrust clearance.

24 Mar 2021

Wells Fargo & Company has reached an agreement to sell its Corporate Trust Services (CTS) business to Computershare in a $750m deal.

Wells Fargo’s CTS business offers trust and agency services related to debt securities issued by public and private corporations, government entities, and the banking and securities industries.

It is said to serve more than 14,000 clients.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of the year, subject to customary closing conditions.

Wells Fargo Commercial Capital head David Marks said the transaction is consistent with the company’s strategy of focusing on businesses that are core to its consumer and corporate clients.

22 Mar 2021

Credit Suisse is reportedly planning to triple its employee strength in China over the coming three years, continuing its build out in the market that has liberalised its financial services sector.

The bank’s CEO Thomas Gottstein spoke about the latest move on a panel discussion at the China Development Forum, according to Bloomberg.

“We are planning to more than triple our presence in term of headcount in China over the next 3 years and look forward to strengthening our position,” Gottstein noted.

The move ramps up the bank’s previous expansion plans in China.

22 Mar 2021

DBS has announced its commitment to grow its suite of sustainable investments to more than half of its assets under management (AuM) by 2023.

In addition, it aims to encourage clients in the region to adopt environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards in their investments.

Furthermore, the bank will widen and deepen client access to social enterprises in the region, which includes next-gen tech leaders involved in positively impacting communities.

This is part of DBS and its three-pronged sustainable investing approach. The three prongs are:

-Drive ESG investing;

-Advocate responsible business practices, and

-Create social impact.

19 Mar 2021

Goldman Sachs Asset Management has selected Sovereign Climate Risk Scores powered by Moody’s affiliate Four Twenty Seven for use in its ESG evaluation of sovereign risk.

This dataset offers a detailed view of the future exposure of the global population, the economy, and agriculture to a range of physical climate hazards.

The impact of climate factors, including increased temperatures, drought, rising sea levels, and more extreme weather events, are expected to increase over time. Goldman will use the dataset as an input to its own proprietary Sovereign ESG framework.

The firm will combine the assessment of climate risk exposure with qualitative analysis by its investment teams on countries’ capacities to adapt to physical risks.