Managing director and head of J.P. Morgan's Broker Dealer Services business (www.jpmorgan.com/bds), board member of J.P. Morgan Clearing Corp. and member of the firm's Operations, Client Review and Global Equities Executive Committees.
Registered Rep.: Joe, I'll bet that many independent advisors didn't even know that J.P. Morgan had a broker/dealer business.
Joe Triarsi: Broker Dealer Services (BDS) is J.P. Morgan's fully disclosed clearance business. It provides end-to-end clearing, financing, execution and core brokerage capabilities to broker/dealers worldwide that broadly fall into three categories: institutional, private client and professional trading.
RR: How do you differentiate your firm in the marketplace?
JT: One is our technology upgrade. J.P. Morgan has made a major strategic commitment to this business in the form of a multi-year $100mm-plus investment. Also, BDS has its own dedicated client service team that reports to me. As a result, we set the agenda and manage service delivery so that it's available, responsive, and takes ownership through to problem resolution. Also, we don't use phone trees.
RR: What would you say is your competitive advantage?
JT: From a purely technical standpoint, the rich internet experience our clients enjoy through our upgraded advisor workstation, we believe, is a “game changer” for firms who have numerous offices and work locations around the globe. Based on Adobe's Flex technology, our workstation provides ultra-high-speed data movement and screen rendering which allows us to efficiently process and render large and complex data sets to the users' desktops. This is a tremendous advantage for the end broker or advisor, effectively putting the full suite of J.P. Morgan's clearing and custody tools at their fingertips.
RR: What goals do you have for the business?
JT: That's an easy one. Our goal is to offer the best fully disclosed clearing product to a select set of firms on the street. One that allows our clients to manage their businesses more efficiently, thereby helping them grow and maximize their profitability.
RR: Can you comment on the market trends facing your industry and where you see the business going?
JT: I think the predominant trend facing every major clearance provider is the push in international expansion. Clients are looking to transact business in more and more markets, so we're getting an ever increasing number of inquiries about our emerging markets capabilities. Additionally, there are numerous opportunities being presented to grow market share through targeted acquisitions; we intend to be an active participant in these discussions. Lastly, firms increasingly want to partner with a service provider that doesn't try to be all things to all customers.
