INVESTMENT banker Viswas (Vis) Raghavan feels that it’s been a “pretty anemic year” for investment bankers though he is still optimistic over current economic instability.
Speaking to the media at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January this year, the investment banker and European boss of banking giant JP Morgan admitted that there has been an economic impact of Brexit which needs to be “replenished”.
“All banks pay for performance, so if the performance isn’t there, the compensation isn’t going to be there,” the firm’s global investment-banking co-head said in a TV interview at Davos.
Overall, he feels there is a "light at the end of the tunnel" in this ongoing fight against inflation.
Market desks had a mixed year, Raghavan added, with strong performances in commodities, rates and macro, as well as volatility-based equity trades at a time when demand for cash equities was more muted.
Overall, Raghavan sees "light at the end of the tunnel" in this ongoing fight against inflation.
Raghavan is chief executive of JP Morgan’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) business. He is also theco-head of global investment banking at JPMorgan. Based in London, he has over two decades of corporate finance experience. As head of banking, he leads a team of bankers across the region responsible for corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions along with transaction banking.
At Davos, Raghavan also said that JPMorgan was now in a “steady state” with regard to its European footprint, with moves and restructuring related to Brexit now complete. He added that the UK needed to find a way to recover from the economic impact of its vote to leave the European Union (EU) and encourage higher workforce participation, but the country remains an attractive investment proposition, he indicated.
The executive also said most JPMorgan workers have returned to the office and there is a “spring in people’s steps” and he thinks it’s really good having people back.
JP Morgan opened a new trading hub in Paris in 2021 amid a push to ramp up operations outside London in the EU after Brexit. Raghavan said most of the staff moves that needed to be done have now taken place, saying that the bank was early in its response to Brexit.
JP Morgan still has more than 18,000 people working in the UK, and it is continuing to hire under its Chase retail banking arm after launching in the region in 2021.
At a time amid the cost-of-living crisis when rivals are cutting back Raghavan believes there's "a flightto quality that benefits firms like JPMorgan whenever things get choppier in the market."
As CEO for EMEA, he works with the Senior Country Officers and business heads across J.P. Morgan, to ensure that clients are able to take full advantage of the firm's local knowledge and global capabilities, across all businesses. In addition, as co-head of Global Investment Banking, he leads a team of coverage and product bankers responsible for corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and capital markets.
Seeing his iconic role in the world of banking, it is hard to believe that Raghavan came from a drastically different and comparatively humble beginning.Born and brought up in Mumbai in India gave him a different and fresh perspective, as told the GG2 Power List in 2022.
“Working in a multitude of industries (in and around Birmingham) and growing up in India and I think living in Bombay, all helped. It makes you street smart and you hone your EQ (emotional quotient) which is valuable and important in an industry like this – and it’s the mix of amazing people you come across. I savoured these multiple experiences,” he said.
He graduated in Physics, and then did a Masters in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science in Britain. Working for an American firm, General Signal in India, he got an opportunity to work – and as part of a company sponsorship – to study further – in the UK when he arrived here in 1986.
He was based in Birmingham and studied at Aston University. He later trained as a chartered accountant in addition between 1989 and 1993, and joined Lehman Brothers that year. He enjoyed his time working and studying and helped to build computer systems for many blue-chip clients working in the region. He wanted to MBA in the US, but instead opted for training as a chartered accountant with Ernst and Whinney (now EY) in the UK.
By the late 90s, he was Lehman Brothers’ head of equity-linked origination for Europe and Asia.
In July 2000, Raghavan defected from Lehman Brothers to arch-rival J.P. Morgan, which he joined initially to head up its equity-linked and derivatives capital markets business for Europe and Asia.
Since 2000, he has been an integral part of JP Morgan’s EMEA business. He has held roles including head of Debt and Equity Capital Markets' for Europe & Asia Pacific, head of Global Equity Capital Markets, and mostly recently, head of Banking for EMEA.
In 2017, hewas appointed as CEO for the company’s EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, and Asia), thereby making him one of the most powerful bankers on the planet. JP Morgan has 20,000 clients globally and is the second-largest bank on earth, with total assets exceeding $2.5 trillion.
In 2016, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in science from Aston University.Now in his early 50s, Raghavan has long primarily resided in London.
His first love is cricket and he’s recently been able to combine this with his work life by organising an annual cricket competition at the hallowed Lord’s Cricket Ground in London.
No wonder that Raghavan was awarded the Man of the Year at the GG2 Leadership Awards in 2019 for the way he led the bank as well as to mark his own personal rise from being an engineer on the factory floor to holding one of the most pinnacle positions in the global banking sector.
