Exclusive | JPMorgan’s faith in Hong Kong as financial hub as strong as ever a century on, COO Daniel Pinto says

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The New York-based bank is betting that the city where it has been doing business for a century can recover when the economic cycle turns, and live up to its potential

The company will continue to be invested in China, because for any company ‘once you’re out, it’s very difficult to go back in,’ says chief operating officer

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“We will continue to do the business that we are doing and continue growing,” said the bank’s chief operating officer Daniel Pinto during an interview in Hong Kong. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Mia Castagnonein Shanghai

Published: 6:00am, 14 Mar 2024Updated: 3:45pm, 28 Aug 2024

JPMorgan will continue to invest in Hong Kong, betting that the city where it has been doing business for a century can recover when the economic cycle turns, and live up to its potential as the financial centre of the world’s second largest economy.

“We will continue to do the business that we are doing and continue growing,” said the bank’s president and chief operating officer Daniel Pinto during an interview in Hong Kong. “We are not the type of company that is going to go fully in one day and fully out the other. These are [business] cycles, and we’ve been navigating cycle after cycle over time.”

The New York-based bank began in Hong Kong in 1924 as the Equitable Eastern Banking Corporation. Together with its full range of banking, wealth management and brokerage businesses on the mainland, JPMorgan counts the China region as half of its Asia-wide business.

JPMorgan, which oversees assets of US$2.6 trillion, said it would continue hiring in China for its asset management business. Last year, the company took full ownership of China International Fund Management, its asset management arm in the mainland.

JPMorgan’s president and chief operating officer Daniel Pinto, on March 13, 2024, in Hong Kong. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

“China is the second biggest economy in the world and it will create opportunities, how fast or how slow those opportunities will present themselves is a matter of being prudent in that part of the cycle,” said Pinto.