JP Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) EMEA CEO, Patrick Thomson, has said strategic partnerships are the firm’s number one priority, reflecting the greater consolidation and M&A within financial services.
Speaking at the JPMAM Global Media Summit in London, Thomson, who has held the role since 2017, was asked about the firm’s priorities which he identified as being strategic partnerships, ETFs and alternatives.
Commenting further on the desire to enact strategic partnerships, Thomson said: “Volatility has given rise to more consolidation, not only in asset management but in platforms and in wealth management, even in institutional.
“Our clients are merging and getting scale and that is happening a lot in asset management. Scale brings extraordinary benefits to our clients and our ability to invest through a cycle. COVID was a very tough year for markets, but we continued to invest in our research capability, our analyst programs, and our technology. So strategic partnerships have driven a lot of growth for us over the last two to three years.”
Asked by Money Management whether there are any specific areas of focus where JPMAM would like to expand via strategic partnerships, Thomson said it varies by geography, but flagged a focus on the growth in the wealth management market.
He referenced a deal with UK wealth manager Coutts where it launched the Coutts Diversifying Alternatives Multi-Manager Fund last April, a liquid alternative solution designed to have low sensitivity to traditional markets. The partnership is part of a broader relationship that also includes providing Coutts’s clients with information through JPMAM’s Market Insights program.
Thomson said: “It really does depend on each country. I’ll give you an example. We have a strategic partnership with Coutts in the UK, which is a well-known private bank and large wealth manager who were looking for a solution to help them with alternatives as they didn’t have an in-house capability themselves.”
As well as the Coutts deal, it has also enacted strategic partnerships with New Zealand-based Craigs Investment Partners (CIP) to support New Zealand’s growing wealth management segment, with UK wealth manager and financial planning firm Fairstone, and Kuwait-based wealth manager NBK Wealth.
The CIP deal in January 2024 further develops CIP’s investment capabilities and insights by directly accessing JPMAM’s global capabilities. In return, CIP provides JPMAM with a long-term partner in NZ wealth management. CIP is New Zealand’s largest investment advisory firm with over NZ$30 billion in client funds under management.
In January 2025, UK firm Fairstone, which has over 1,200 financial advisers and 125,000 clients, entered into an agreement which sees it utilise JPMAM’s global equity and global bond capabilities as core components of its NOVA MPS (Managed Portfolio Service) range. The NOVA MPS will provide institutional-grade investment capabilities to retail clients at institutional pricing, delivering significant value at just 55 basis points.
Finally, the NBK Wealth partnership last October “aims to enhance clients’ potential for higher returns through improved diversification and the introduction of innovative investment products”.
Thomson said: “Most of these strategic partnerships have a couple of features which are the same. One is co-creation of a product. It won’t typically be an off-the-shelf product, it will be a series of solutions that are built for the client and customised.
“There’s also a heavier reliance on our Market Insights team to explain our products, and we do a lot of training in the country where we think we can help them grow their business. It’s predicated on us using our resources to help the client and the partner grow their business.
“The good news is most of our client segments, such as wealth management, are growing and their businesses are growing. The successful ones are consolidating, but they are also growing, and we want to be part of that, and the way we do that is via these partnerships.”
Money Management attended this event as a guest of JPMAM who covered the cost of attendance.
