Custody Risk Americas Awards 2012 – Private Equity Fund Administrator of the Year: JP Morgan

At the end of 2011, JP Morgan was looking after $364 billion of private equity assets globally, an increase of nearly 20% from the previous year. In addition to providing a high level of consistent, quality support to its clients, JP Morgan continued to expand its business in terms of both locations served and capabilities offered.

Last year was a tale of two halves in private equity. In the first half, a slow but steady recovery in debt markets led to several high-profile deals. But the eurozone crisis saw senior debt dry up in the second half of the year as banks were reluctant to lend in such uncertain times. Fundraising for private equity houses also proved difficult as regulation of pension funds and insurance companies stepped up.

In 2011, the bank launched a reporting web portal that unifies reporting for alternative asset managers across hedge fund private equity and real estate strategies. Clients are given access to a dashboard where key management data is presented in forms and charts alongside document management and workflow tracking portals.

The global securities services provider also expanded its fund administration capabilities globally by opening offices for its private equity and real estate fund services in Singapore and Hong Kong. The aim is to move Asian-based clients from the Americas region to its new offices. 

JP Morgan has been an early adopter of the recommendations around reporting standards designated by the Institutional Limited Partners Association, a trade association for partners in private equity.

The bank has a large number of risk management processes in place including eForms, which allows clients to securely send electronic instructions related to the fund and ensure transactions are compliant with the fund’s accounting model while providing a host of manual checks.

The outlook for the private equity market remains challenging with a dearth of headline-grabbing deals. But, given the nature of the industry, there will always be opportunities for fund administrators to add value to customers by improving service offerings. JP Morgan looks well placed to continue investing in its capabilities in addition to benefiting from any recovery in the market.

“JP Morgan is pleased to be named Private Equity Fund Administrator of the Year for the second year in a row. We accomplished this by providing industry-recognised high-quality customer service together with JP Morgan’s brand, scale and franchise,” said James Hutter, Global Head, Private Equity and Real Estate Services at JP Morgan.

“JP Morgan is the only administrator born out of a private equity firm and has continued to benefit from this market positioning by having the right industry professionals in the right roles, and a healthy client mix of private equity and real estate specialist firms, large assets managers and institutional investors.”

(Pictured: James Hutter, Global Head, Private Equity and Real Estate Services, JP Morgan)

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