Harshika Patel has been stepping outside of her comfort zone to drive J.P. Morgan Private Bank's asset growth.
In a fiercely competitive wealth landscape, she's not one to shirk a challenge. And as she had told me in a previous interview, there were many turns in her 30-year career which included moving countries and organizations while pregnant.
When she had to face a tumultuous term in April after U.S. president Trump's 'liberation day' tariffs, the first thing she did was call every single client and check in with them.
"We encouraged them to ignore the 'noise' and stay calm and invested for the long-term," she said, stressing that regular communication is key in periods of uncertainty.
"Clearly clients had margin calls, but they largely remained calm amongst all the noise."
Most private banking clients had fresh memories of the savage equity and bond markets of 2022 and extreme volatility during the 2020 pandemic. Like most private banks, J.P. Morgan took the opportunity to encourage diversification away from U.S equities toward alternative investments.
From 2017 to 2024, we have tripled the number of advisors in Asia. Much of the AUM growth we saw last year can be attributed to the investments we made in those years.
Still, clients in the region are typically more tilted towards tactical and self-directed investments, relative to other regions. While the bank's discretionary portfolio management (DPM) mandates have been growing steadily, overall activity remains skewed to transactional activity, Patel said.
Clients are looking at equities in Europe, Japan and India for investment opportunities, she added. Although cautious overall, given the clouded global macro picture, they are also examining bespoke opportunities in China, owing to low valuations.
Hitting the $200bn mark
Patel, who took on the role of Asia boss in October 2023 from Kam Shing Kwang, oversaw a strong 2024 which built on the bank's earlier growth strategy and continues to build on the momentum.
The Wall Street giant recorded a 30% year-on-year increase in its Asia assets under management (AUM) in 2024, topping the $200bn mark to hit $215bn.
"This is a remarkable achievement as it gives us a mid to high single-digit market share of the Asia wallet," she said.
Patel added that this year she hopes to reap the benefits of the approaches to advisers she made in 2024 as she looked to bring in more talent. Although the bank's regional headcount was relatively flat, according to estimates. This recruitment push should reflect in headcount numbers this year.
She said the focus has primarily been on JP Morgan's two regional growth hubs, Hong Kong and Singapore, where the AUM split is 60/40. The bank covers 10 Asian markets from the two wealth centers.
Hong Kong is marginally bigger than Singapore because it is the conduit for the "biggest offshore wealth wallet across the region", China. And though there have been headwinds in China with the slowdown in IPO activity and property market weakness, Patel said "the bank continues to see solid wealth generation from our clients' underlying businesses, return on investment activity and one-off liquidity events."
The bank's Hong Kong strategy involves servicing local residents from the region who have set up family offices in the city. Singapore, which also has a Greater China desk established four years ago that is growing at a double-digit rate, focuses on opportunities in the Asean region, as well as Australia.
"Asean has been a big beneficiary of the China plus-one strategy, resulting in significant wealth growth in the region," she added.
Australia is also an exciting market, but many private banks in recent years have moved offshore to cover it from Singapore. J.P. Morgan continues to serve its ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) Australian client base from Singapore, adding that not all onshore markets in Asia are a focus.
"A lot of UHNW Australians who invested in local assets, such as equity or real estate, in the last few decades have done very well. However they are now increasingly seeing the benefits of diversifying their portfolios into global asset classes," she said.
As they expand their businesses globally or their children go abroad to study, that is also another catalyst for the need to access wealth solutions internationally.
