(March 9) – Venerable investment banker J.P. Morgan is positioning itself as an innovator in financial services e-business with a new e-finance unit called LabMorgan.
The new group will act as an incubator and early-stage merchant bank for entrepreneurs providing with e-finance ideas and nurturing innovation.
“We expect LabMorgan to be a catalyst for transformative global growth for J.P. Morgan, helping us expand our client franchise, drive capital markets innovation, and advance
productivity,” says Douglas Warner III, J.P. Morgan’s chairman.
Nick Rohatyn, who founded the firm’s global emerging markets business and recently headed its credit markets business will be the first head of LabMorgan. Six other managing directors are joining the group full-time and during the year it expects to build a staff of nearly 200 professionals. The firm is expecting to spend US$1 billion on e-business initiatives in 2000. The firm says the new unit will be cost- neutral to the firm’s planned
expenses.
“We are looking to build and nurture e-finance ideas that will shape the future of financial services, expand our client base and the markets themselves, and commercialize our marketable technology infrastructure,” says Rohatyn.