IN OCTOBER 2017, financial powerhouse JP Morgan’s CEO Daniel Pinto handed over leadership of the bank’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations to Vis Raghavan.
Raghavan was already co-chief executive and head of banking for the region, as well as lead for liaising with regulators on JP Morgan’s Brexit strategy.
“It’s very nice, very flattering. A privilege and an honour,” he said.Born in India, Raghavan graduated from the University of Bombay, where he read physics. He is an honorary Brummie – despite being a devoted Arsenal supporter – having attended graduate school at Aston University (electronic engineering and computer science), and was “genuinely pleased” to be awarded an honorary doctorate from his UK alma mater in 2016.
The fact that he worked as a systems engineer for General Signal, a technology and manufacturing company, while studying in Birmingham probably reveals an important quality that has made Raghavan such a success in the financial world.
That is in addition to qualifying as a chartered accountant at EY (or Ernst & Young as it then was).Being a systems person, he could problem solve and use his technical skills to do so, an ability would stand him in good stead.
It is rare to have such a combination – mastery of the technical and being able to manage – higher up on the career ladder, normally.This ability to be both technical and creative is something Raghavan explicitly values. “For me, banking is the perfect marriage of quantitative skills and real-life business situations,” he says.
“You’re at the cutting-edge of strategic thinking, you are involved in projects that allow you access to the boardrooms of the largest companies in the world. There is immense satisfaction and pleasure that comes from helping clients, companies, investors, governments and supranationals, with their strategic business and funding needs.
”Before the financial crisis when the fashion was for private equity and hedge-fund clients, extreme leverage and big risks, JP Morgan’s solid book of blue-chip loans and its patient, longterm planning looked out-of-date: everybody wanted to be a Goldman Sachs whizz-kid. Of course, after the credit crunch sent many of the riskier institutions either bankrupt or deep in the red, JP Morgan came out of it looking wise and stately.Although known as a bank that could weather a storm, it is gratifying to Raghavan that since 2008, it has been doing just as well in what he calls “peace time”.
“We have been thought of as a better bear market house,” he says. “But we have now extended our lead in a bull market.”In fact, despite a slowing of business across the industry, perhaps due to Brexit anxieties (“investors are craving certainty, but we are absolutely prepared for a no-deal Brexit”, he says), JP Morgan has earned the most fees in the industry almost without interruption since the great financial crisis over a decade ago.
In Raghavan’s area, the bank is routinely at the top of the league tables. He was sanguine a year ago about the two per cent lead over Goldman and an eight per cent share of global estimated investment banking fees commanded by JP Morgan.
“We’ve looked back for 20 years and that gap has never been this large in that period,” he says. “And on only a couple of occasions – in the dotcom boom and after the financial crisis – has anyone had a market share of more than eight per cent in EMEA.”
On the latest figures from August, JP Morgan is still well out in front. “It’s a great performance across the board but it’s about not being a onequarter wonder. Consistency is key, making sure performance is repeatable,” Raghavan added.He is also serious about cleaning up the tarnished reputation of the banking sector, vocally supporting the Financial Conduct Authority’s recent Senior Managers and Certification Regime, which he believes allows bankers to speak out against corruption and rule-breaking.
“What you now have is a heightened focus on escalation so the chain [goes] right from junior management, middle management, all the way to the top,” he reflects. “It is really around reinforcing what we stand for … the culture, the conduct. It is how we do business principles.
”The tennis enthusiast who recently bought a mansion in Malibu, California, for $7.5 million (£6.17m), claims he is, at heart, still a humble convertible bond salesman, client-focused and dedicated to the relationship (he recently worked on a £1.5 billion bond for Anil Agarwal of Vedanta Resources).“However the Brexit negotiations turn out,” says Raghavan. “We’ve got to put clients at the heart of everything
