Latest / Masters in Business / Interview With Kelly Coffey: Masters in Business (Audio)
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: This is Masters in Business with Barry Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio.
- 0:08Speaker 1: We have a very special guest. Uh. It's really kind
- 0:11Speaker 1: of a fascinating um individual in that I know of
- 0:17Speaker 1: no other person who is responsible for more assets, no
- 0:21Speaker 1: other woman who is higher ranking in the world of finance,
- 0:27Speaker 1: and yet at the same time is not only unknown
- 0:31Speaker 1: to the investing public in general, is probably fairly unknown
- 0:37Speaker 1: within the world of financial asset management, meaning people who
- 0:42Speaker 1: work in finance probably haven't heard of Horror as much
- 0:47Speaker 1: as they've heard of some some more famous money managers.
- 0:51Speaker 1: Everybody knows who Jamie Diamond is, He's the CEO of
- 0:54Speaker 1: JP Morgan, but how many people know who the chief
- 0:58Speaker 1: executive officer, the c e O of JP Morgan Private
- 1:02Speaker 1: Bank is. They managed six hundred and fifty billion dollars,
- 1:05Speaker 1: They're a huge, huge player in the world of asset management,
- 1:10Speaker 1: and I bet most of you don't know who Kelly
- 1:13Speaker 1: Coffee is. Well. We spent a delightful hour and change
- 1:17Speaker 1: chatting about what it's like being a woman on Wall Street,
- 1:21Speaker 1: what it was like being at a big bank in
- 1:23Speaker 1: the midst of the financial crisis, and what exactly the
- 1:27Speaker 1: CEO of JP Morgan Private Bank actually does. I found
- 1:32Speaker 1: the conversation really quite fascinating, and I expect you will also, so,
- 1:37Speaker 1: without any further ado, my conversation with Kelly Coffee. This
- 1:44Speaker 1: is Masters in Business with Barry Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio.
- 1:49Speaker 1: My special guest this week is Kelly Coffee. She might
- 1:53Speaker 1: be the most influential woman in finance who you've never
- 1:56Speaker 1: heard of. She is the CEO of JP Morrigan Private Bank,
- 2:01Speaker 1: which manages over six hundred and fifty billion dollars in
- 2:05Speaker 1: client assets. Her background, she has a bachelor's and International
- 2:10Speaker 1: Affairs and French at Lafayette College, a master's and Fire
- 2:14Speaker 1: and Service at Georgetown University. She's a member of the
- 2:17Speaker 1: Global Wealth Management Operating Committee at JP Morgan and also
- 2:22Speaker 1: executive sponsor for the Asset Management Woman's Network. Kelly Coffee,
- 2:27Speaker 1: Welcome to Boomberg. Thank you. It's wonderful to be here.
- 2:29Speaker 1: So you have a really interesting background. Starting you've been
- 2:34Speaker 1: at JP Morgan for quite a while. You've worked you
- 2:36Speaker 1: withy through number of departments. But before we get to
- 2:38Speaker 1: life at JP Morgan, tell us a little bit about
- 2:41Speaker 1: your background. How did you get into the financial services
- 2:44Speaker 1: industry with a background in French and foreign service. Uh,
- 2:49Speaker 1: I think I'm an accidental entrance into this, into this career.
- 2:52Speaker 1: My undergrad degree, as you said, in my graduate degrees
- 2:55Speaker 1: in international affairs. I wanted to study the world and
- 2:57Speaker 1: how how it worked, and that was always fine fascinating
- 3:01Speaker 1: to me. My other choice for my undergraduate major would
- 3:04Speaker 1: have been math, but at eighteen years old, I couldn't
- 3:07Speaker 1: figure out what I would have done with a math degree,
- 3:08Speaker 1: so I just studied that um. And so when I
- 3:13Speaker 1: was coming out of Georgetown, I had a decision to make.
- 3:17Speaker 1: I could have been interestingly an observer at the European
- 3:22Speaker 1: Union Integration Talks three pre the the euro and all
- 3:27Speaker 1: of the things that we're talking about will it become
- 3:29Speaker 1: dismantled today? And the birth you could go to. I
- 3:33Speaker 1: could go to the funeral. Let's hope not we're at that,
- 3:35Speaker 1: we don't go to that funeral, but or go go
- 3:38Speaker 1: to Wall Street. And I thought, since I didn't do
- 3:40Speaker 1: an MBA, that I should get just some grounding and finance.
- 3:43Speaker 1: So I went to JP Morgan because they had a
- 3:45Speaker 1: great training program. I met some fantastic people, and I
- 3:48Speaker 1: would do it for a couple of years and years
- 3:51Speaker 1: ago probably, and now you're running the private bank. So
- 3:54Speaker 1: you were in a number of different departments, kind of
- 3:56Speaker 1: work your way through. Tell us about the different divisions
- 3:59Speaker 1: that you either worked at or rent. I started in
- 4:03Speaker 1: corporate finance and M and A because it was it
- 4:06Speaker 1: was what I knew and I thought that would be
- 4:08Speaker 1: the best part. It was. It was fantastic place for me.
- 4:10Speaker 1: I loved building models, and pretty quickly in that I
- 4:14Speaker 1: was asked to move to Argentina for US when Argentina
- 4:17Speaker 1: was privatizing its industry. So we actually, hopefully we're going
- 4:20Speaker 1: into that kind of phase of Argentina today with ma
- 4:22Speaker 1: Cri carry every cycle they did. We've seen the same
- 4:27Speaker 1: thing in Brazil and Mexico every few years is a
- 4:29Speaker 1: big regime change. So I went. I went there when
- 4:32Speaker 1: Menem was president. Cavallo was the finance minister, who was
- 4:35Speaker 1: a rock star in my eyes, and they had put
- 4:38Speaker 1: in place something called convertibility. They pegged Paso to the
- 4:40Speaker 1: dollar one for one, and then we were helping with
- 4:43Speaker 1: the privatization program. So JP Morgan, together with the French
- 4:47Speaker 1: and the Italian and a local company called pets comp
- 4:49Speaker 1: Punk bought the phone company in the north of Argentina,
- 4:52Speaker 1: and we financed it and then we ultimately took a
- 4:54Speaker 1: public but I I was pulled down there to work
- 4:57Speaker 1: on that, and I stayed for about five years. And
- 4:59Speaker 1: all these were own entities that were spinning out. They
- 5:04Speaker 1: privatized it, then you helped take it public. Did the
- 5:06Speaker 1: international affairs French and everything else help with that? Help?
- 5:10Speaker 1: I mean, of course now I'm fluent in Spanish, I
- 5:11Speaker 1: spoke French when I went there, But it did I
- 5:14Speaker 1: think my undergraduate degree and my graduate degree, particular in
- 5:17Speaker 1: international affairs from Georgetown. It taught you how to take
- 5:20Speaker 1: really complicated things and distill them down to the essence.
- 5:23Speaker 1: And there's an analytical part of that. It's not all
- 5:25Speaker 1: not all of that is numbers. And I think it
- 5:27Speaker 1: did help me, particularly when we were negotiating and you
- 5:30Speaker 1: had the French, the Italians, the Argentine and the Americans
- 5:34Speaker 1: US trying to agree on something in a consortium as
- 5:37Speaker 1: joint owners. I think it served me well. And some
- 5:39Speaker 1: of those met everybody speaking English. I'm assuming in those
- 5:42Speaker 1: meetings everybody spoke English in those meetings. Of course I
- 5:44Speaker 1: became fluent in Spanish. But yeah, we you know a
- 5:46Speaker 1: lot of those. A lot of that business is done
- 5:49Speaker 1: in English. Uh. And it was interesting even though and
- 5:52Speaker 1: even in Argentina are English. We would have held the
- 5:55Speaker 1: meetings in Spanish verbally, but all of our presentation materials
- 5:58Speaker 1: were in English, but just been because we're in an
- 6:01Speaker 1: American bank. How long were you down in Argentina? About
- 6:03Speaker 1: five years? Right? It's really lovely. It's beautiful so and
- 6:08Speaker 1: I hope it becomes really prosperous now with that they
- 6:11Speaker 1: have of tremendous resources and raw materials and commodities. It
- 6:16Speaker 1: just seems that every few years they seem to slip
- 6:19Speaker 1: off the tracks and it takes a long time to
- 6:20Speaker 1: get back on on pace. And hopefully I'm also slaves
- 6:26Speaker 1: to the comality market. You have a huge run up
- 6:28Speaker 1: cause by China, and then the run back down and
- 6:30Speaker 1: suddenly they're out over their skis. And it seems that
- 6:33Speaker 1: nobody seems to learn from the cycle. Hey, kamalities are booming,
- 6:36Speaker 1: let's let's you know, build this, sell that, and all
- 6:39Speaker 1: of a sudden it goes the other way and what
- 6:41Speaker 1: a surprise. Yeah. I think Argentina they do have enough
- 6:44Speaker 1: of a of a market internally, and and if the
- 6:46Speaker 1: government does this right, I think it can work beyond that. Sem.
- 6:49Speaker 1: So let's bring you back to UH New York and
- 6:51Speaker 1: the private bank. What's the difference between the private bank
- 6:55Speaker 1: and a regular bank. The private bank is actually a
- 6:59Speaker 1: microcosm of the higher firm because when need think about
- 7:02Speaker 1: who we do business with, it's it's it's extremely wealthy
- 7:06Speaker 1: clients who probably they might be business owners, they might
- 7:08Speaker 1: do entrepreneurs a number of different ways they got there,
- 7:11Speaker 1: and they need us for banking, they need us for credit,
- 7:14Speaker 1: they need us for investment advice. They also need us
- 7:17Speaker 1: to help sell their businesses sometimes help them think about
- 7:19Speaker 1: I p O. So there's not a part of JP
- 7:22Speaker 1: Morgan that my business doesn't plug into to make sure
- 7:25Speaker 1: I'm getting the best of JP women for each of
- 7:27Speaker 1: those clients. So it is really like a bank. We
- 7:29Speaker 1: have just steered very hard net worth individuals. It is
- 7:32Speaker 1: it is, I mean, JP Morgan serves the whole spectrum
- 7:35Speaker 1: right between Chase and we. We we coordinate very closely
- 7:38Speaker 1: with that. And the idea is to basically say, this
- 7:41Speaker 1: is the client, this is what they need, which is
- 7:43Speaker 1: not only delineated by their balance sheet. By the way,
- 7:46Speaker 1: as you know, very it's it's really what what do
- 7:48Speaker 1: they what do they need advice on? And then let's
- 7:50Speaker 1: make sure we're getting that right advice to them the
- 7:52Speaker 1: way they want it. I'm Barry rid Helps. You're listening
- 7:55Speaker 1: to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio. My special guest
- 7:59Speaker 1: today is Kelly Coffee. She is the CEO of JP
- 8:03Speaker 1: Morgan's Private Bank, which manages about six d and fifty
- 8:07Speaker 1: billion dollars in client assets. And one of the things
- 8:10Speaker 1: that stood out to me on your bio is that
- 8:14Speaker 1: you lead the investment banks Woman's network. And one of
- 8:18Speaker 1: the things that I've tried to do with this show
- 8:21Speaker 1: is bring more women on. And it's not easy. It
- 8:24Speaker 1: is very much a male dominated industry. When I look
- 8:28Speaker 1: to bring people on who are female, it's harder to
- 8:32Speaker 1: find them, the fewer and further between. Why is that?
- 8:36Speaker 1: It's a good question. One of my colleagues always refers
- 8:38Speaker 1: to me as the spotted owl because but but I
- 8:42Speaker 1: actually think at Jpmarren, we have a pretty incredible group
- 8:44Speaker 1: of people. You know, I I don't I don't know
- 8:47Speaker 1: that I can put pinpoint what exactly is is the issue? Um,
- 8:52Speaker 1: you know, I think that we've done I think what
- 8:54Speaker 1: it takes to actually help women advance. First of all,
- 8:58Speaker 1: they have to be interested, and then second of all,
- 9:01Speaker 1: they have to have advocates. And and we've we've done
- 9:04Speaker 1: a number of different things. I have, whether it's at
- 9:06Speaker 1: the investment bank, in the Women's network, or in my
- 9:09Speaker 1: current business now where I sit and talk to women.
- 9:12Speaker 1: There are some who come into my office and I'll
- 9:15Speaker 1: I'll say I want to give them a promotion and
- 9:16Speaker 1: give them a bigger job, and their first response to
- 9:19Speaker 1: me sometimes as well, I'm not sure I'm ready for that.
- 9:22Speaker 1: And you would never get that same sort of response
- 9:24Speaker 1: from a guy. They would They would fake it till
- 9:26Speaker 1: they make it as the old old expression, and that's
- 9:28Speaker 1: a male attitude. So women sometimes need a little bit
- 9:32Speaker 1: of a push to say, you know what, be ambitious,
- 9:34Speaker 1: you can do this, You'll figure it out. I wouldn't
- 9:36Speaker 1: be offering it to you if I didn't think you
- 9:38Speaker 1: could do it, and I couldn't help you do it,
- 9:40Speaker 1: And so there's an element of that. So we previously
- 9:43Speaker 1: interviewed Michelle Myers is one of the up and coming
- 9:46Speaker 1: economists again on the Bank America Merrill Lynch platform, and
- 9:50Speaker 1: one of the questions one of the comments she said
- 9:52Speaker 1: that I thought was so interesting. The lack of women
- 9:56Speaker 1: at the top of the industry is a challenge for
- 9:58Speaker 1: the young women coming up in financed today. Agree with that,
- 10:02Speaker 1: And the way she probably meant that is when you
- 10:05Speaker 1: want to think about how you can do things, most
- 10:07Speaker 1: people need to see somebody who's succeeded to do that
- 10:10Speaker 1: no career path that you've witnessed. Oh you can do this,
- 10:13Speaker 1: and they want to see that you're you're still you're
- 10:16Speaker 1: still basically hacking away through the underbrush, through the wilderness. Yeah,
- 10:19Speaker 1: and I think there's some truth to that I have found.
- 10:22Speaker 1: When I first ran our derivatives marketing group, I remember
- 10:25Speaker 1: coming in and there were very few women in the group,
- 10:28Speaker 1: and a couple of them that were in the group
- 10:29Speaker 1: I knew probably shouldn't be uh, And what I did
- 10:33Speaker 1: was actually make it a conscious effort to sit down
- 10:37Speaker 1: and think about who can we pull in and enlist
- 10:39Speaker 1: the men, the great men that worked for me. I
- 10:41Speaker 1: turned to one of them jokingly said today, you're either
- 10:43Speaker 1: going to learn a lot about shoes or you're gonna
- 10:44Speaker 1: help me recruit some really amazing women to work with us.
- 10:47Speaker 1: And he did. He said, I'm going to do that,
- 10:49Speaker 1: and when I shifted to run something else, we were
- 10:51Speaker 1: over female. I found that if you got to critical mass,
- 10:54Speaker 1: it took care of itself. It becomes self sustaining at
- 10:56Speaker 1: that point. And I think at JP Morman we've seen
- 10:59Speaker 1: that a bit because if you look at our if
- 11:01Speaker 1: you look at our organization, you have Marri Edos wh
- 11:03Speaker 1: runs asset management, our CFO Marian Lake as a rock star,
- 11:07Speaker 1: Our chief marketing officer Kristin Lemcow is incredible. Uh, Aaron
- 11:11Speaker 1: Hill runs all of the branches are branch network, and
- 11:14Speaker 1: so we have some women in really visible, big jobs
- 11:17Speaker 1: that I think give people that who need that there
- 11:20Speaker 1: is a track to get there, and I can do
- 11:22Speaker 1: it while still having kids and having a life and
- 11:24Speaker 1: all the other things that are important. I think that
- 11:26Speaker 1: is what is helpful. There's a lot of academic research
- 11:29Speaker 1: out there that says, if you're an investor and you're
- 11:32Speaker 1: a woman, the odds are that you're going to have
- 11:34Speaker 1: a better return because you don't suffer from what we
- 11:37Speaker 1: jokingly refer to as testosterone poisoning. Any truth to that
- 11:41Speaker 1: in the real world, I don't know. I I think
- 11:45Speaker 1: I've seen that research. I think it's interesting I can
- 11:48Speaker 1: say that in general, and this is obviously a gross generalization,
- 11:51Speaker 1: women tend to be calmer in their reactions to things.
- 11:55Speaker 1: And I know with myself when something's going you know,
- 11:58Speaker 1: when the market's going crazy, when we have to make
- 11:59Speaker 1: it a decision, I get incredibly calm because that's the
- 12:01Speaker 1: way I need to think and process to make the
- 12:03Speaker 1: decision um And I think that's not always the case
- 12:06Speaker 1: with with some of the male counterparts in the past.
- 12:09Speaker 1: So you know, maybe you make better decisions when you're
- 12:11Speaker 1: when you're calm. Well, it certainly reflects in in that
- 12:14Speaker 1: academic data on on performance, although if you read all
- 12:17Speaker 1: those studies there's always footnotes says relatively small sample set.
- 12:22Speaker 1: I know, you know, you need a few thousands managers
- 12:24Speaker 1: in order to be able to to draining real conclusions. So,
- 12:28Speaker 1: since you've joined the industry and progressed up the ladder
- 12:32Speaker 1: at JP Morgan, what has changed within the industry for better?
- 12:37Speaker 1: A lot has changed within the industry for better? I mean,
- 12:40Speaker 1: do you mean specifically for women? Are just generally no,
- 12:42Speaker 1: I mean generally generally civily for women? Okay, Well, I
- 12:44Speaker 1: would say I was just just a general point that
- 12:46Speaker 1: I think is also very positive for women. Just think
- 12:48Speaker 1: about the use of technology today versus when we started.
- 12:50Speaker 1: When I started and I was covering Latin America, not
- 12:53Speaker 1: only did I have to finish my model, but I
- 12:55Speaker 1: actually had to face it to the client overnight and
- 12:58Speaker 1: it would cut off at least ten times. I had
- 13:00Speaker 1: at least another hour or two in my schedule at
- 13:02Speaker 1: the office to fax it. And because a two clock,
- 13:05Speaker 1: three o'clock in the morning, Who's gonna do that for you?
- 13:07Speaker 1: When you think about what BlackBerry did for us and
- 13:10Speaker 1: now iPhones, where I can be anywhere and responding to
- 13:13Speaker 1: what I need, I think it gave people a lot
- 13:14Speaker 1: more flexibility. And I think that, along with some of
- 13:18Speaker 1: the technology, just even the way those companies have operated
- 13:21Speaker 1: has even made our industry much more fluid. I mean,
- 13:25Speaker 1: we're on the radio, but you see I'm in a
- 13:27Speaker 1: bright blue dress today with boots. When I started at
- 13:30Speaker 1: JP Morgan, I never would have worn anything like this
- 13:34Speaker 1: because colorful in boots or dude suits. Women didn't wear
- 13:42Speaker 1: pants really gerald shoes and a blazer, and years ago
- 13:49Speaker 1: that was unthinkable. Also, I think that's I and I
- 13:52Speaker 1: think that's somewhat superficial, But I think it manifests itself
- 13:55Speaker 1: in terms of our openness to who is in the
- 13:58Speaker 1: who is in the organization, women moving along. I think
- 14:01Speaker 1: that's all part of the same. There's much more opportunity
- 14:04Speaker 1: to express your personality in our industry than there was
- 14:08Speaker 1: when I started. You know, you mentioned technology, how much
- 14:11Speaker 1: doesn't make a difference that so much communication is being
- 14:15Speaker 1: done by email or instant message. We're big slack users.
- 14:19Speaker 1: So who's on the other side of the communication You
- 14:22Speaker 1: may not even know their gender, or their race or
- 14:24Speaker 1: anything else like that. Does that technology change make a
- 14:28Speaker 1: difference or is it It's already adopted and pass that.
- 14:32Speaker 1: I think it's adopted. I guess what I would say
- 14:34Speaker 1: about technologies. I love the flexibility it it affords us.
- 14:39Speaker 1: I don't love that so much is done on chat
- 14:42Speaker 1: and on email, honestly, because I do think and you
- 14:46Speaker 1: I'm sure you've seen this, somebody can misinterpret an email
- 14:49Speaker 1: that you very easily, very easily written word to There's
- 14:53Speaker 1: also less of a self editing process. I've worked with
- 14:57Speaker 1: people in the past who I've seen since horrific emails
- 15:02Speaker 1: that had they turned it into a formal memo, it
- 15:05Speaker 1: never would have No one would hit that send button.
- 15:07Speaker 1: It would be there'd be a little more circumspection about
- 15:10Speaker 1: it rather than blah blah blah sends. And and that's
- 15:14Speaker 1: the problem with two instant communication or pick up the
- 15:16Speaker 1: phone call and and so when I shifted, you know,
- 15:19Speaker 1: everybody in ours to use blackberries, and we were all
- 15:21Speaker 1: really good with our thumbs typing with blackberries, and we've
- 15:24Speaker 1: now shifted to iPhones. There are a good group of
- 15:27Speaker 1: people that still like the BlackBerry. But I made the
- 15:29Speaker 1: shift to iPhones even though I'm not very good at
- 15:32Speaker 1: typing on it, because I figured shorter emails are better
- 15:34Speaker 1: and I'm much more likely to just pick up the
- 15:36Speaker 1: phone and call a person instead of drafting an email.
- 15:38Speaker 1: It's a little bit more of a pain for me
- 15:39Speaker 1: to do it on an iPhone. I think that's a
- 15:41Speaker 1: good thing. I'm Barry Ridhults. You're listening to Masters in
- 15:44Speaker 1: Business on Bloomberg Radio. My guest today is Kelly Coffee.
- 15:48Speaker 1: She is chief executive officer of JP Morgan Private Bank,
- 15:53Speaker 1: part of JP Morgan Chase, which runs the private bank
- 15:56Speaker 1: runs over six d and fifty billion dollars in client assets.
- 16:02Speaker 1: You were at JP Morgan during the eighth nine collapse.
- 16:06Speaker 1: That had to be quite a interesting couple of months.
- 16:10Speaker 1: What was it like at the back front row seat? Yes,
- 16:14Speaker 1: it was interesting is a good way to say it.
- 16:16Speaker 1: I think it was like always, it was always being
- 16:20Speaker 1: tense and on and kind of ready for the next
- 16:22Speaker 1: punch and where it was going to come from. I
- 16:24Speaker 1: think one of my most vivid memories. I have a
- 16:26Speaker 1: lot of vivid memories. One of my most vivid memories
- 16:28Speaker 1: is the fact that you would walk onto our trading
- 16:30Speaker 1: floor on a Saturday or Sunday and it looked exactly
- 16:33Speaker 1: like it did Monday through Friday. Really, why was that?
- 16:35Speaker 1: Because you don't know what was happening the weekend, and
- 16:38Speaker 1: you know, I remember, you know the night that the
- 16:40Speaker 1: weekend that we bought bear Sterns, you know, having that
- 16:43Speaker 1: that conversation on Sunday night, like I need everybody in
- 16:45Speaker 1: a six am, We're going We ran their risk. From
- 16:48Speaker 1: day one, I had to walk into the building and
- 16:50Speaker 1: figure out who worked for me and what they were doing,
- 16:52Speaker 1: and make sure I was running derivatives marketing. Then make
- 16:55Speaker 1: sure that no trade was put on around Wound without
- 16:58Speaker 1: my approval. And it was it was moving quickly, and
- 17:01Speaker 1: then the weekend Lehman failed. When when that was happening,
- 17:04Speaker 1: it was it was extraordinary complex because not only you know,
- 17:07Speaker 1: we have collateral posted to one another, so you knew
- 17:09Speaker 1: what that was, but you had to actually think about
- 17:11Speaker 1: what was going to happen in the markets and how
- 17:12Speaker 1: that impacted your derivatives position and therefore what trades you
- 17:15Speaker 1: might have to do when the market opened, and and
- 17:19Speaker 1: you were just constantly running scenarios to make sure we
- 17:21Speaker 1: were ready for that. It was extraordinary, it really, it
- 17:24Speaker 1: really was. There was a lot of second level thinking
- 17:26Speaker 1: where it's not here's what's going to happen now, how
- 17:28Speaker 1: it's going to affect other things that might be based
- 17:30Speaker 1: on something else, and at a certain point that decision
- 17:33Speaker 1: tree becomes completely unmanageable. But just for the next morning,
- 17:37Speaker 1: you had at least have a sense of what was
- 17:39Speaker 1: going on. Clients were looking to us for a lot
- 17:41Speaker 1: of advice on what was going on in the market,
- 17:43Speaker 1: so you were really trying to take it all in
- 17:44Speaker 1: and and it really was scenario analysis. The the takeover
- 17:48Speaker 1: of Bear Sterns happened fairly rapidly, and Bear wasn't in
- 17:53Speaker 1: terrible um shape, and if I recall correctly, you JP
- 17:58Speaker 1: Morgan was the big his counterparty to Bear, so you
- 18:01Speaker 1: really understood their book better than anybody else, well as
- 18:04Speaker 1: well as you can from the outside. I guess it
- 18:06Speaker 1: was very quick. It was a Thursday night to Sunday
- 18:08Speaker 1: night announcement. That's what A twenty nine billion dollar take
- 18:11Speaker 1: over something along those lines. Huge. And the other thing
- 18:13Speaker 1: I think that was extraordinary about it because Jamie has
- 18:15Speaker 1: told the story I know a number of times where
- 18:18Speaker 1: you know he got that diamond Jamie Diamond, right, Okay,
- 18:22Speaker 1: he had that call Thursday night. It was his birthday
- 18:25Speaker 1: dinner and Uma hearing about that and uh it was
- 18:29Speaker 1: all Schwarts that called him and said we have an issue.
- 18:32Speaker 1: And he called, you know, the head of our investment
- 18:34Speaker 1: in A couple of people. People got out. It was
- 18:36Speaker 1: eleven o'clock. People got best back into the office right
- 18:41Speaker 1: over to Bear Sterns to figure out and they worked
- 18:42Speaker 1: all night to make sure Bear could open the next
- 18:45Speaker 1: day and then through the weekend to see what we
- 18:47Speaker 1: could do for longer term. It was I think what
- 18:49Speaker 1: the I'm not sure how many other institutions, if there's
- 18:52Speaker 1: any other institution, could have pilled that off terms of
- 18:54Speaker 1: the amount of analysis that we had to do to
- 18:56Speaker 1: be able to step in and run that right from Monday,
- 18:59Speaker 1: I was incredibly proud of everybody. It was a tough time,
- 19:01Speaker 1: but exciting in a way too. At the time, I
- 19:04Speaker 1: was critical of the deal from the FED perspective, but
- 19:09Speaker 1: objectively looking at it from a corporate perspective, I thought
- 19:13Speaker 1: Jamie Diamond pulled off one of the greatest acquisitions of
- 19:16Speaker 1: all time, essentially with his little risk as humanly possible
- 19:20Speaker 1: for that much of that size, large risky bank, with
- 19:24Speaker 1: the FED banking backing it up, and or eventually all
- 19:28Speaker 1: but yeah, but when you look at all the main
- 19:30Speaker 1: lane one, two, and three that were unwound, these were
- 19:33Speaker 1: the derivative positions of of Bear at the time. It
- 19:37Speaker 1: really was fairly break even that that unwind wasn't wasn't horrific.
- 19:42Speaker 1: And I think people from the outside we're looking and saying,
- 19:44Speaker 1: oh my god, this is potentially tens of billions of dollars.
- 19:48Speaker 1: It was essentially flat by the time they were done.
- 19:50Speaker 1: I don't know. I think I think if you go
- 19:52Speaker 1: back and you factor in all the fines that we've
- 19:54Speaker 1: paid as a result of that acquisition. You trace a
- 19:57Speaker 1: lot of the fines back to that acquisition, particularly in
- 20:00Speaker 1: the mortgage space um and they were second, they were
- 20:04Speaker 1: the second largest mortgage and interesting that nobody was able
- 20:11Speaker 1: to do the same thing with Lehman Brothers. I know, well, yeah,
- 20:14Speaker 1: that really was interesting. I didn't think at the time
- 20:17Speaker 1: that they were going to let that go, but it
- 20:18Speaker 1: became apparent. I remember that weekend very well, series of
- 20:21Speaker 1: conference calls. I think one of the things that made
- 20:23Speaker 1: JP Morgan able to react so quickly in the crisis
- 20:27Speaker 1: was the fact that we had the risk infrastructure already
- 20:31Speaker 1: set up. You know, Jamie also likes to say, you
- 20:33Speaker 1: don't you don't declare war and then raise your army.
- 20:35Speaker 1: You get your army first, and so we had risk
- 20:37Speaker 1: meetings that we were doing that were this regular weekly
- 20:40Speaker 1: meetings all the time, and during the crisis, what we
- 20:44Speaker 1: did is we were just having them maybe four or
- 20:46Speaker 1: five times a day. So it was that same infrastructure,
- 20:48Speaker 1: but just shortening so that that reporting was instantaneous up
- 20:52Speaker 1: and down in terms of understanding what was going on
- 20:55Speaker 1: around around the world and in the crisis, it was
- 20:58Speaker 1: it was a pretty incredible thing to say, and you
- 21:02Speaker 1: ended up with a fantastic building. We did really happy about. Yeah,
- 21:06Speaker 1: that's one of the nicest new buildings. The bear Stearns
- 21:09Speaker 1: building right next door to us, right, so our headquarters
- 21:11Speaker 1: right in the corner. You're on Park and between forty
- 21:16Speaker 1: and forty seven and this is seven and Vanderbilts literally
- 21:20Speaker 1: in the corner. I'm Barry Ridhults. You're listening to Masters
- 21:23Speaker 1: in Business on Bloomberg Radio. My special guest today is
- 21:26Speaker 1: Kelly Coffee. She is the CEO at JP Morgan Private Bank,
- 21:32Speaker 1: which manages six hundred and fifty plus billion dollars. Let's
- 21:36Speaker 1: talk a little bit about investing today. Uh, what are
- 21:40Speaker 1: some of the more common questions that the bank is
- 21:43Speaker 1: hearing from investors? You know, investors are It's a it's
- 21:48Speaker 1: a complicated world out there. You have what's going on
- 21:50Speaker 1: in China, what's going on in Europe. You have negative
- 21:53Speaker 1: rates in certain places. You have the elect US election
- 21:55Speaker 1: going on, you have you know, the FED having moved
- 21:58Speaker 1: in December and unclear what's going to happen for the
- 22:01Speaker 1: rest of the year. So they're asking all of those questions,
- 22:04Speaker 1: and they're asking them in terms of what does this
- 22:06Speaker 1: mean for you know, for my portfolio, what I should do.
- 22:10Speaker 1: I think our job as investors, the most important thing
- 22:13Speaker 1: to do is to stay invested. And if you look
- 22:17Speaker 1: at if you look at the performance of clients who
- 22:19Speaker 1: stay invested through market volatility. Again, this is money that
- 22:23Speaker 1: is for the long term. They do far better than
- 22:26Speaker 1: trying to time the market to go in and out.
- 22:27Speaker 1: Even just a simple if you look at the return
- 22:29Speaker 1: of the SMP over the last twenty years called eight percent,
- 22:33Speaker 1: So if you invested about ten thousand dollars you'd have today,
- 22:36Speaker 1: you know, for eight thousand dollars at the end of
- 22:38Speaker 1: last year, if you missed the top ten days, your
- 22:42Speaker 1: investments have that amount. Nobody knows how to time that
- 22:46Speaker 1: market exactly right. If you miss, if you miss the
- 22:49Speaker 1: top thirty days, you're you're negative. That's amazing. You know that.
- 22:52Speaker 1: We've run some studies on that, and it turns out
- 22:55Speaker 1: that the best ten days are usually adjacent in time
- 22:59Speaker 1: to of the worst ten days. So if you think
- 23:02Speaker 1: you're going to get out of the way, you perhaps
- 23:05Speaker 1: you can, but then to get back in the next
- 23:07Speaker 1: day when it comes snapping back that people don't do things.
- 23:10Speaker 1: It's really hard. So I think what we can we
- 23:14Speaker 1: try we take all of what's going on in the
- 23:16Speaker 1: world and try to understand what we think it means
- 23:18Speaker 1: for portfolios. I think it just proves that being diversified
- 23:21Speaker 1: is the best way to invest for the long term.
- 23:24Speaker 1: And and so those are those are the those are
- 23:26Speaker 1: the types of questions we're getting. Are you Are you
- 23:28Speaker 1: getting similar questions today as to what you got a
- 23:31Speaker 1: year ago, two years ago, three years ago? And how
- 23:34Speaker 1: do those questions differ from what we might have heard
- 23:37Speaker 1: in the two thousand's pre crisis. I think if I
- 23:40Speaker 1: think about today versus a year or so ago, I
- 23:43Speaker 1: think the concern about a recession is higher today than
- 23:46Speaker 1: it was then, so more more concerned about that. And
- 23:50Speaker 1: then I and then obviously the politics, the political situation
- 23:55Speaker 1: this year. Yeah, I think the election is coming. I
- 23:57Speaker 1: think that's that's let me ask you differently because what
- 24:01Speaker 1: I'm hearing from you aside there are a lot of
- 24:03Speaker 1: topical things, but it seems like there are, Oh there's
- 24:07Speaker 1: always something that clients nervously ask about that. Your basic
- 24:13Speaker 1: answer is always, Hey, you need to write out the
- 24:15Speaker 1: volatility for the long haul, and don't worry about last
- 24:18Speaker 1: year was China? The year before do you remember the
- 24:22Speaker 1: Russian invasion? Oh? No, Cyprus, What is this gonna Cause
- 24:26Speaker 1: it seems every year there's something horrific, and every year
- 24:30Speaker 1: goes by and it's not the disaster people forking. I
- 24:32Speaker 1: think that's exactly right. I think what people have there's
- 24:35Speaker 1: always going to be uncertainty in the world, and if
- 24:37Speaker 1: and if you try to wait until it's all certain,
- 24:40Speaker 1: I don't think you'll ever get to that place. And
- 24:42Speaker 1: even when it feels more certain, you're probably too late.
- 24:44Speaker 1: It's probably not the best entry point. Anyway. Market's pretty
- 24:47Speaker 1: good at discounting these things in advance. They are, and
- 24:49Speaker 1: I think you know, you say people at the equity market,
- 24:51Speaker 1: oh it's made, it's made a big run. We do
- 24:54Speaker 1: tell clients when we're getting someone invested. It depends on
- 24:56Speaker 1: where they're sitting today, right, But if they're starting from zero,
- 24:59Speaker 1: we don't do that all in one day or a month.
- 25:01Speaker 1: We we like to phase into that because I think
- 25:03Speaker 1: over time that gives them the best return. But there's
- 25:07Speaker 1: always going to be But there are times where that
- 25:10Speaker 1: entry point just looks particularly attractive, and they tend to
- 25:13Speaker 1: be the scariest times to invest. And that's when you
- 25:16Speaker 1: have to have the long term and just be able
- 25:19Speaker 1: to say, you know, history is a guide, We're going
- 25:21Speaker 1: to be fine through all of this, and and and
- 25:24Speaker 1: it's it's one of the most important lessons in investing,
- 25:26Speaker 1: I think. So let's let's take it in a different direction.
- 25:29Speaker 1: What do you what do you think are some of
- 25:31Speaker 1: the worst investing ideas that are out there these days? Again,
- 25:36Speaker 1: I got the worst investing idea is to not be invested.
- 25:38Speaker 1: I mean that that is sort of the base of
- 25:41Speaker 1: what we're doing. To be not very diversified. It probably
- 25:46Speaker 1: the other when I would say to be to be concentrated.
- 25:49Speaker 1: There are times to be concentrated, and there might be
- 25:51Speaker 1: parts of your wealth to be concentrated in, but overall
- 25:54Speaker 1: to be too concentrated in in one asset class or
- 25:57Speaker 1: one style I think is a mistake. Any thoughts on
- 26:00Speaker 1: smart Beta, Yeah, I think smart Bida is interesting as
- 26:04Speaker 1: a way to to to think about how do you
- 26:07Speaker 1: take advantage of some of the um the idist and
- 26:13Speaker 1: parts of the indices or sort of opportunities exist because
- 26:16Speaker 1: of of miss pricing. Um. You know, when we look
- 26:19Speaker 1: at it, when we look at a portfolio, we are
- 26:21Speaker 1: looking at at it broadly, and I want there to
- 26:24Speaker 1: be a part that is the most efficient way to
- 26:27Speaker 1: capture BETA. Sometimes that's passive, right, a lot of times
- 26:31Speaker 1: that's passive UM. And then think about where are those
- 26:34Speaker 1: parts of what you're investing in that you really need
- 26:38Speaker 1: uh differentiated advice or or or strong management to capture UM.
- 26:44Speaker 1: So emerging markets might be one of those where there's
- 26:46Speaker 1: just a broader variance of performance UM certainly private equity
- 26:52Speaker 1: for that portion of your portfolio. So that's the way
- 26:55Speaker 1: I think about it. Do you what do you guys
- 26:57Speaker 1: do in terms of alternatives or for UM clients, Because
- 27:02Speaker 1: we were talking fairly long term broad asset allocation, investing,
- 27:08Speaker 1: venture capital, private equity, hedge funds. We have a very
- 27:12Speaker 1: robust platform for that and and what we and and
- 27:14Speaker 1: it all starts with our view on what's going on
- 27:17Speaker 1: in the world. So we may say, you know, UM,
- 27:20Speaker 1: we we have a certain view on what's going on
- 27:22Speaker 1: in real estate, and then we'll figure out what we
- 27:24Speaker 1: think the best way and who the best is to
- 27:26Speaker 1: invest on that. UM same thing in terms of something
- 27:29Speaker 1: that might be happening in Europe that we want to
- 27:31Speaker 1: take advantage of and then have the so it is
- 27:33Speaker 1: theme based. We don't take the approach of saying you
- 27:36Speaker 1: should have x percent of your portfolio and private equity, therefore,
- 27:39Speaker 1: let's just fill that bucket. It actually really is more
- 27:42Speaker 1: of an investing view and that that is a great
- 27:45Speaker 1: vehicle to do so, particularly when you have the time
- 27:48Speaker 1: horizons that a lot of our clients have. So it's
- 27:50Speaker 1: a really important part of how we invest for clients.
- 27:52Speaker 1: So I've been reading how overvalued the US market is
- 27:56Speaker 1: for I don't know, four or five years. Eventually they'll
- 27:58Speaker 1: get it right, But um, what do you think about
- 28:01Speaker 1: current market valuations in the US and Europe and any emergition.
- 28:05Speaker 1: You know, it's so interesting how people always zero in
- 28:07Speaker 1: on the US market as it overvalues undervalued. I do
- 28:10Speaker 1: think it's about fairly valued right now, particularly if you
- 28:12Speaker 1: look versus history. But when you stop and just think
- 28:16Speaker 1: about what the stock market is, it's a collection of
- 28:19Speaker 1: companies that hopefully their earnings are always growing. So even
- 28:22Speaker 1: a fairly valued market should appreciate over time. The stock
- 28:26Speaker 1: market spend at all times highs many many times throughout history,
- 28:31Speaker 1: and when you think about it, because it's always gone up,
- 28:32Speaker 1: up up, and there are moments and periods of where
- 28:35Speaker 1: it comes down. So it really does again come down
- 28:38Speaker 1: to your your time horizon in your perspective. But I
- 28:41Speaker 1: think the overall index level probably fairly valued, not that interesting.
- 28:47Speaker 1: The parts of the market that I think are more
- 28:48Speaker 1: interesting are really more sectors where we see there there's
- 28:53Speaker 1: an interesting trend going on, or they may be at
- 28:55Speaker 1: a discount to where their historical values have been. So
- 28:58Speaker 1: healthcare and technology you are probably two within that that.
- 29:02Speaker 1: I so, I think you've got interesting or inexpensive, as
- 29:06Speaker 1: interesting and less expensive than they have been in the
- 29:09Speaker 1: in in the past. What about the energy sector which
- 29:12Speaker 1: has gotten shell lacked over the past couple of years
- 29:14Speaker 1: and talk about wanting to buy stuff when everybody else
- 29:17Speaker 1: hates it. What do you think? What are you guys
- 29:19Speaker 1: looking at that sector? Look carefully at that. I think
- 29:22Speaker 1: there's a little bit more to play out there, but
- 29:24Speaker 1: the entry point to that will will be a bit
- 29:27Speaker 1: more in the fixed income side than the equity side.
- 29:29Speaker 1: So for us, you know, here we are with six
- 29:32Speaker 1: years into a bull market. We're having a conversation about
- 29:35Speaker 1: valuation and this and that, and I hear no euphoria.
- 29:39Speaker 1: There's still a decent amount of skepticism out there. What
- 29:43Speaker 1: what does that mean about the market and why we're
- 29:48Speaker 1: now at at or near all time highs. Where is
- 29:51Speaker 1: the euphoria this? I think when you go back and
- 29:56Speaker 1: just remember what two thousand and eight was like, and
- 29:58Speaker 1: then you think about what happened since, it's been a
- 30:02Speaker 1: slower grind in terms of what the economy has even done.
- 30:05Speaker 1: And I think that weighs into people's sentiment today, right
- 30:08Speaker 1: that that was not that long ago and it was
- 30:10Speaker 1: so difficult that it really does weigh on people to
- 30:14Speaker 1: it stays in investors minds quite some post traumatics, I
- 30:19Speaker 1: crash disorder. I think we have a lot of clients
- 30:22Speaker 1: um and we have a lot of investors who will
- 30:24Speaker 1: just hold a higher level of cash than they had
- 30:26Speaker 1: in the past just because of that. And and that's fine,
- 30:29Speaker 1: but it it It certainly is a conscious decision, and
- 30:32Speaker 1: that's going to be a drag on their return. That
- 30:33Speaker 1: will be a bit of drag, yes, because you know,
- 30:36Speaker 1: I mean, you have I don't know, something like eleven billion,
- 30:39Speaker 1: eleven trillion dollars that are earning nothing or negative yield
- 30:42Speaker 1: in terms of the the overall market. Just look at
- 30:46Speaker 1: look at where we are. We're at zero to negative
- 30:49Speaker 1: yields right now, so that is a big drag. But people,
- 30:52Speaker 1: let's think about as people are are are concerned. It's
- 30:54Speaker 1: almost like an insurance policy. I'm concerned, so I want
- 30:56Speaker 1: to keep that. UM. I do think that you know
- 31:00Speaker 1: whether you're keeping too much or not. It has to
- 31:02Speaker 1: be answered on an individual level. UM. But I think
- 31:05Speaker 1: we talked about earlier, all of the uncertainties that we
- 31:08Speaker 1: have in the world is dragging on this and that's
- 31:10Speaker 1: why it's not a euphordia. If you if you look
- 31:12Speaker 1: about at the amount of liquidity that's put into the
- 31:16Speaker 1: world market and the central banks around the globe, the
- 31:19Speaker 1: FED is the only one that's starting to say we
- 31:21Speaker 1: should normalize a bit. And twenty five basis points was
- 31:24Speaker 1: really nothing. It really doesn't mean anything to anyone, UM,
- 31:27Speaker 1: But just that start has spooked the market. So I
- 31:30Speaker 1: think we are We're at a point where it's kind
- 31:32Speaker 1: of on precedent, and I don't think we should expect
- 31:34Speaker 1: to see a euphoria like we've seen in the past,
- 31:37Speaker 1: because the size of what's gone on and what's gone
- 31:39Speaker 1: on around the world is such that it is it
- 31:43Speaker 1: is putting a bit of a dampen heer. We've been
- 31:45Speaker 1: speaking with Kelly Coffee. She is the chief executive officer
- 31:49Speaker 1: of JP Morgan Private Bank. If you've enjoyed this conversation,
- 31:53Speaker 1: be sure and stick around for our podcast extras, where
- 31:56Speaker 1: we keep the tape rolling and continue chatting. You can
- 32:00Speaker 1: check out my daily column on Bloomberg View dot com
- 32:04Speaker 1: or follow me on Twitter at rid Halts. I'm Barry
- 32:07Speaker 1: rid Halts. You're listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.
- 32:12Speaker 1: Welcome to the podcast Extras. I don't know why I
- 32:14Speaker 1: do this every week, but I do. Kelly, thank you
- 32:16Speaker 1: so much for doing this. This is uh, it was
- 32:18Speaker 1: really fun. I have some of my favorite questions. I
- 32:23Speaker 1: only have you for another twenty minutes or so. There's
- 32:26Speaker 1: a ton of stuff that I didn't get to, and
- 32:32Speaker 1: I'm just going through my papers and seeing what else. Yeah,
- 32:36Speaker 1: everything else is, uh, everything else is is pretty standard.
- 32:40Speaker 1: So so let me just go through, um, some of
- 32:44Speaker 1: my usual favorite questions. Your background. Did you go right
- 32:49Speaker 1: from school to JP Morgan started on this? Basically, you
- 32:52Speaker 1: found your way into finance and pretty much never left
- 32:55Speaker 1: and never left, never went back for the n It
- 32:58Speaker 1: was just always so fun yeah, I because I've done
- 33:00Speaker 1: a lot of different jobs within JP Morgan, and every
- 33:03Speaker 1: single one of them has been fascinating, challenging and interesting.
- 33:08Speaker 1: And I've always felt like everything that was happening in
- 33:10Speaker 1: the world impacted my day and it was interesting, which
- 33:13Speaker 1: is what I ultimately that's the best part about working
- 33:15Speaker 1: in finances. No two days are ever alike. If you
- 33:18Speaker 1: are in a rut and finance you're doing something wrong
- 33:21Speaker 1: because it's always different. There's always something blowing up someway.
- 33:25Speaker 1: Just open your eyes. That's right, the paper every morning.
- 33:28Speaker 1: We're connected to everything that's going on there. I love that,
- 33:30Speaker 1: and that really keeps it really keeps it interesting. So
- 33:35Speaker 1: this is a really naive question. What does the CEO
- 33:39Speaker 1: of a private bank actually do? That's a really great question.
- 33:45Speaker 1: I'm responsible for everything that touches a client, sort of
- 33:48Speaker 1: the end to end business, and so so the advisors,
- 33:51Speaker 1: the portfolios, the marketing board, across the board, strategy. I
- 33:56Speaker 1: have a lot of partners on the table to help
- 33:57Speaker 1: me do that. Across products investing, I have don't do
- 34:00Speaker 1: that by any stretch on my own, but so there's
- 34:02Speaker 1: there is a lot of different parts of my job.
- 34:05Speaker 1: I try to spend a good chunk of my time
- 34:08Speaker 1: somewhere around uh thirty or forty plus percent with clients.
- 34:13Speaker 1: If I could get that higher, I would. I always
- 34:14Speaker 1: try as I get more efficient and things done, because
- 34:17Speaker 1: when I'm with clients, I'm I'm learning from them, I'm
- 34:20Speaker 1: hearing how we're doing. I'm also seeing my team in
- 34:22Speaker 1: action and spending time with them. So I find that's
- 34:25Speaker 1: a really good way to touch people and to stay
- 34:27Speaker 1: really attuned to what's going on. I have to spend
- 34:29Speaker 1: a good portion of my time. You know, we've had
- 34:31Speaker 1: a lot change on the last over the last couple
- 34:34Speaker 1: of years UM in terms of the way we have
- 34:36Speaker 1: to do things, and so we have a lot to
- 34:37Speaker 1: do to make sure UM our client experience is excellent.
- 34:41Speaker 1: We're very efficient at doing everything. So I spent a
- 34:43Speaker 1: good chunk of my time on improving the business UM
- 34:47Speaker 1: and how many different divisions or different department chiefs are
- 34:52Speaker 1: directly answering to you. I have about fifteen direct reports
- 34:56Speaker 1: if you look at what we're organized regionally around the US,
- 35:01Speaker 1: so that is the regional sort of client facing folk
- 35:04Speaker 1: that directly report. And then I have the what might
- 35:07Speaker 1: be a more matrix but sort of all of the operations, technology, business, finance, etcetera.
- 35:13Speaker 1: That is that is also really much part of my table.
- 35:16Speaker 1: Let's say as we do that, so folks, etcetera. You
- 35:20Speaker 1: mentioned how things have changed over the past couple of years.
- 35:23Speaker 1: How have you guys had to adapt to Well, well,
- 35:26Speaker 1: here we are in the post crisis world or in
- 35:29Speaker 1: the post dot frank world. How has the compliance side
- 35:33Speaker 1: of this changed either your your daily operations or is
- 35:38Speaker 1: it just another thing to deal with? It's changed, It's
- 35:41Speaker 1: changed everything. It's changed our daily the way we on
- 35:45Speaker 1: board a client, a new client, the way we interact
- 35:47Speaker 1: with every client. That when you think about doing a
- 35:49Speaker 1: mortgage towards bringing a new client in, we've we've had
- 35:53Speaker 1: to make sure we're complying not only with pretty complex regulations,
- 35:57Speaker 1: but a a different standard um in terms of the
- 36:00Speaker 1: level of questions and the level of monitoring that we
- 36:03Speaker 1: have to do. So we've we did all of that
- 36:05Speaker 1: really quickly. And I think that if you ask me
- 36:07Speaker 1: what the biggest I think the biggest factor for change
- 36:10Speaker 1: will be going forward is similar to what it's been
- 36:12Speaker 1: in the past in terms of technology, but I think
- 36:14Speaker 1: at a much faster pace because we need to make
- 36:17Speaker 1: sure we're interacting with our clients digitally more efficiently. You know,
- 36:21Speaker 1: their expectations of us aren't measured versus other financial institutions.
- 36:25Speaker 1: Their measured versus how they how they interacting with Amazon
- 36:27Speaker 1: and Google and Apple, and we need to make sure
- 36:30Speaker 1: we're we're staying pace with that. You want to be
- 36:33Speaker 1: a technology play or not just to find it. So
- 36:35Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about fintech. What do you
- 36:38Speaker 1: guys think about all the new technological innovations, whether it's
- 36:42Speaker 1: the ability to analyze the portfolio and generate a risk score,
- 36:47Speaker 1: or the robo advisors or anything along those lines. How
- 36:50Speaker 1: has financial technology changed the way JP Morgan operates. We
- 36:54Speaker 1: we we are critically, We're really focused on it's critical
- 36:58Speaker 1: change a lot of what we do. How you think
- 37:00Speaker 1: about well, first of all, not only how you interact
- 37:02Speaker 1: with your clients right, making sure they can see our
- 37:05Speaker 1: thought leadership on their phone, they can move money on
- 37:08Speaker 1: their phone, everything that everybody does with these with these
- 37:10Speaker 1: little devices they care in their pocket. We're changing that. Um,
- 37:14Speaker 1: we're the bank, So let me just like bank JP Morgan, Bank,
- 37:19Speaker 1: JP Morgan Chase actual depository bank. I mentioned we were
- 37:24Speaker 1: talking earlier about the mobile Bloomberg Gap, which I think
- 37:27Speaker 1: is awesome. Your mobile bank app, which I use, is great.
- 37:32Speaker 1: You could you could move money around, you could pay bills,
- 37:35Speaker 1: you can do different things. It's really like a full
- 37:38Speaker 1: computer on your iPhone, which is really impressive. And we're
- 37:42Speaker 1: working every single day to improve it. And so that
- 37:44Speaker 1: that's one of the benefits I have. When you sit
- 37:45Speaker 1: at the private bank, I'm part of this huge organization
- 37:48Speaker 1: that covers you know, we interact with at least half
- 37:51Speaker 1: of the consumers in the US. Silly everything we do.
- 37:56Speaker 1: What what I do is I just take it and
- 37:58Speaker 1: adapt it for certain clients segment, whether it's the private
- 38:01Speaker 1: bank or another part. And that's so it's changing everything
- 38:03Speaker 1: we do how I look at how I'm looking at
- 38:06Speaker 1: data in terms of giving clients advice. You know, we
- 38:09Speaker 1: have a big data team at JP Morran. That's fabulous.
- 38:11Speaker 1: How we think about who our next clients should be.
- 38:15Speaker 1: It's it's uh, it's changing every day. Huh. It's um
- 38:20Speaker 1: and it's fun. Full disclosure. We we bank with you,
- 38:24Speaker 1: My wife as an account with you guys, so we
- 38:26Speaker 1: were in the household for that. Our corporate account is
- 38:29Speaker 1: also there. We found that your ability to do a
- 38:34Speaker 1: H S and other things, the interface was just very
- 38:38Speaker 1: ahead of everything else. We we looked at a bunch
- 38:40Speaker 1: of banks and you guys were just heading shoulders above that.
- 38:43Speaker 1: But that is not an official endorsement. I just wanted
- 38:45Speaker 1: to disclose because someone's gonna say, hey, don't you bank
- 38:48Speaker 1: with those guys. Yeah, they're not waving my monthly fee.
- 38:50Speaker 1: Because if you look at everything, right, if you will,
- 38:53Speaker 1: thank you for your business first of all, um, but
- 38:55Speaker 1: if you look at all the money we move. We've
- 38:57Speaker 1: said this publicly, it's somewhere between five and ten million
- 39:00Speaker 1: dollars a day. That day. That's insane, five to ten
- 39:03Speaker 1: trillion dollars a day. So let's one of the questions
- 39:07Speaker 1: I asked earlier was about some of your mentors, um,
- 39:10Speaker 1: but let's talk take this uh in general about mentors
- 39:14Speaker 1: for women. But who were some of your early mentors
- 39:17Speaker 1: in the world to find it. I've been lucky to
- 39:19Speaker 1: have a lot of great mentors. Probably what I would
- 39:21Speaker 1: consider one of my first mentors, it might be a
- 39:22Speaker 1: strange way to call him, was my grandfather, who ran
- 39:25Speaker 1: a bank in Pennsylvania, and he passed away. So you're
- 39:29Speaker 1: from a banking fan, banking family, you could say, a
- 39:32Speaker 1: small hometown bank, the old Forge Bank, and and he
- 39:37Speaker 1: was pretty incredible. And so when I went into finance,
- 39:39Speaker 1: and and I worked for him in the summers when
- 39:41Speaker 1: I was in high school and and did a couple
- 39:43Speaker 1: other things too. But you know, it was it was
- 39:45Speaker 1: a really great relationship because it's it's someone you could,
- 39:48Speaker 1: you know, you could talk to about everything, including you know,
- 39:51Speaker 1: at the time, what we thought Greenspan was going to
- 39:53Speaker 1: do next on the FED. I mean, it was it
- 39:54Speaker 1: was a really close relationship and I think, um that
- 39:56Speaker 1: formed a lot of a lot of who I am.
- 39:59Speaker 1: And then when I came into the business, I've had
- 40:01Speaker 1: some pretty you know, pretty amazing uh people that I've
- 40:05Speaker 1: worked with that have just given me good advice as
- 40:08Speaker 1: different points in time. I think, I think JP Morgan
- 40:11Speaker 1: is a place where it's not too often where you're
- 40:13Speaker 1: you're a couple. I might have been just for the
- 40:15Speaker 1: training program month out when they tapped me in the
- 40:17Speaker 1: shoulder and sent me down to Bueno Side's to work
- 40:19Speaker 1: in Argentina, uh to to do project there and then
- 40:22Speaker 1: asked me to move a year or two later, and
- 40:25Speaker 1: and you know, there's been a lot of either, you know,
- 40:28Speaker 1: and it cuts across the levels. I have mentors that
- 40:31Speaker 1: are more junior and more senior that I looked to
- 40:34Speaker 1: and I learned from all the time. They tapped you
- 40:36Speaker 1: right out of the training program to go to South,
- 40:40Speaker 1: so they obviously saw a little skill there. And I
- 40:42Speaker 1: don't know. I think it was I spoke French. They
- 40:44Speaker 1: sent me to Argentina. That's how much thought went into it.
- 40:47Speaker 1: But it was. It was fabulous, and we went down.
- 40:49Speaker 1: We were selling a company. We were selling a phone company.
- 40:52Speaker 1: No well that we were buying the phone company in
- 40:54Speaker 1: the north. But the first time I went down, we
- 40:55Speaker 1: were selling a factory for European company and it was
- 40:58Speaker 1: in the south of Argentina, a little place called Commodo Ladavia.
- 41:02Speaker 1: And there were no women that lived in the town
- 41:04Speaker 1: except for the women that served the lunch at the factory,
- 41:06Speaker 1: and they didn't really live with the town. I think
- 41:07Speaker 1: they they live far away. And they sent me down
- 41:10Speaker 1: to two due diligence on it, which was pretty funny.
- 41:13Speaker 1: I got a lot of lot of in the town. Um.
- 41:17Speaker 1: What investors influenced your approach to thinking about private banking? Uh,
- 41:25Speaker 1: A lot of investors have influenced my approach. I you know,
- 41:29Speaker 1: all of the greats I and I love the simplicity
- 41:31Speaker 1: of Buffett. I think, you know, us internally have some
- 41:34Speaker 1: pretty extraordinary investors. Whether you you look at some of
- 41:37Speaker 1: our ceios, like Mike Symbolist, who has been at jpmore
- 41:40Speaker 1: in a long time. It just has a unique perspective
- 41:42Speaker 1: on the world. Um. You know, we also on our
- 41:46Speaker 1: platform have a number of the best managers in the world,
- 41:51Speaker 1: and we have names any want to mention. I don't
- 41:53Speaker 1: think I want to mention any names, but I think
- 41:56Speaker 1: that we have them. You know, we spent a lot
- 41:57Speaker 1: of time with them, and when they come in and
- 41:58Speaker 1: think about and talk about what's going on in the
- 42:01Speaker 1: world and what they do, I learned something from every
- 42:04Speaker 1: single one of them. It's an incredible position to be in.
- 42:07Speaker 1: How about books, What are some of your favorite books?
- 42:10Speaker 1: And they could be fiction and nonfiction, investing related or
- 42:14Speaker 1: non investing. That's a really hard question for me because
- 42:17Speaker 1: I love to read, so I could give you a
- 42:19Speaker 1: super super long list if you think about if I'm
- 42:22Speaker 1: starting with fiction because that's fun because I do like
- 42:24Speaker 1: mostly on vacation to to get into something that kind
- 42:27Speaker 1: of takes my mind completely out of finance. I like
- 42:30Speaker 1: books that take you to a different time period and
- 42:32Speaker 1: then explore characters there. So if you think about one
- 42:34Speaker 1: of my favorite series is ken Fall. It's a great
- 42:36Speaker 1: writer and um he wrote Pillows of the Earth. But
- 42:39Speaker 1: the you know, The Winters of the World, the Three,
- 42:41Speaker 1: the trilogy that goes from World War One through World
- 42:43Speaker 1: War Two. That's that's a favorite of mine. UM. And
- 42:47Speaker 1: you know, I love Henry James Portrait of a Lady.
- 42:49Speaker 1: That's again that period that kind of takes you back
- 42:52Speaker 1: really interesting characters. And then I and then I like
- 42:54Speaker 1: to read about a lot of business books, business or
- 42:58Speaker 1: investing books. So there's a great book Hilary Bossity that's
- 43:00Speaker 1: called Execution, Getting It Done. I think, you know a
- 43:03Speaker 1: lot of what I have to do in my business
- 43:05Speaker 1: is execute. And you know, even a great strategy poorly
- 43:09Speaker 1: executed doesn't do anything. Um. I like Stephen Pinker, I
- 43:12Speaker 1: like Malcol Gladwell, I like Adam Grant. So those are
- 43:15Speaker 1: the types of things that I that I tend to read.
- 43:18Speaker 1: I have Pinkered and Grant both queued up in the
- 43:21Speaker 1: coming months. I'm excited. I just started Originals. I don't
- 43:25Speaker 1: know if you just starting that one. That's just and
- 43:28Speaker 1: Pinker has so many gratefulks don't even know where to
- 43:30Speaker 1: begin exactly. But he's really a deep thinker and really
- 43:35Speaker 1: an interesting interesting guy. Any finance books of mentioned of
- 43:39Speaker 1: note that you want to mention um House of Morgan. Okay,
- 43:46Speaker 1: that's about the history ji. No, Bill Cohen didn't write that.
- 43:50Speaker 1: He wrote a new it was I can't remember who
- 43:52Speaker 1: the author was. I can't remember right now because it's
- 43:54Speaker 1: it stops probably in or two. It's it's actually it
- 44:00Speaker 1: actually ends quite a while go. Bill wrote a newer one,
- 44:03Speaker 1: and I actually I read some of his. I think
- 44:05Speaker 1: they're good. My head of research just read the one
- 44:10Speaker 1: of the more recent biographies of James pier what his name,
- 44:14Speaker 1: Pierpont Morgan JP Morgan, the actual man, and said it
- 44:18Speaker 1: was utterly rivening and he couldn't put it down. And
- 44:20Speaker 1: the biography Steve Jobs, his biography was was pretty incredible. Yeah.
- 44:24Speaker 1: And the Graham there's a great one about her Washington Post.
- 44:28Speaker 1: That's a really good one. The Right Brothers one everybody
- 44:30Speaker 1: has been raving about on my bookshelf. I haven't gotten.
- 44:32Speaker 1: I think you're making that into a movie too. Really,
- 44:35Speaker 1: I thought I heard that everything. He's the author of
- 44:38Speaker 1: that book who escapes Me at the moment? Who was
- 44:41Speaker 1: the author that wrote I can't believe in forget his
- 44:43Speaker 1: name right now. Barbarian's the Gate give me a and
- 44:46Speaker 1: he wrote The Fastball. He's a Really I do read
- 44:49Speaker 1: a lot of his too. It'll it'll come to me
- 44:53Speaker 1: give me a minute. That's the problem with getting older names.
- 44:56Speaker 1: Just I used to have these an go on and
- 45:00Speaker 1: on and on. I get out my little kindle, app
- 45:01Speaker 1: on my iPhone and it it just I'm constantly putting
- 45:04Speaker 1: books on there that people recommend to me. You know,
- 45:06Speaker 1: we have a summer reading list and a winter reading list,
- 45:09Speaker 1: so we're now preparing for our summer reading list, which
- 45:11Speaker 1: is not out yet. I put one out of this
- 45:13Speaker 1: is what I hope to read this summer, and then
- 45:16Speaker 1: we see how many I I actually get through that. Um,
- 45:19Speaker 1: there's there's there's so many fascinating books. McCullough is the
- 45:24Speaker 1: guy who wrote He's the Right Brothers and everything he's written,
- 45:28Speaker 1: including was at Hamilton's. He may have written the Hamilton's
- 45:30Speaker 1: book that became the basis of the play Um which
- 45:34Speaker 1: is now Hamilton is incredible. All right, So we talked
- 45:38Speaker 1: about the changes since you've joined the industry. Let's talk
- 45:42Speaker 1: about the next shifts. You mentioned technology. What are some
- 45:46Speaker 1: of the other major shifts that are coming to finance? Well,
- 45:50Speaker 1: I I think technology. You mentioned fintech. I think that
- 45:53Speaker 1: is the absolute biggest, biggest change because you have a
- 45:57Speaker 1: lot of different companies that come into the space that
- 46:00Speaker 1: are all doing the same thing in a way, They're
- 46:02Speaker 1: all trying to solve a problem that finances. The financial
- 46:06Speaker 1: industries is incredibly complex. We're regulated in a complex way.
- 46:09Speaker 1: What we do is somewhat complex, and they're really good
- 46:11Speaker 1: at figuring out what's that pain point, how do you
- 46:13Speaker 1: solve it? How do you make a mortgage process easier?
- 46:17Speaker 1: So you know what's what's you know going where you
- 46:19Speaker 1: are in that process. One of the most highly regulated
- 46:21Speaker 1: processes um in the world, I believe, and and so
- 46:26Speaker 1: I think that's going to change the way we even
- 46:29Speaker 1: we we we interact with our clients and the way
- 46:32Speaker 1: we serve our clients and the way we think about it.
- 46:34Speaker 1: And it's changing. Like I said before, everything we do.
- 46:37Speaker 1: A lot of the analyzes we're doing inside to make
- 46:39Speaker 1: you know, I think we we just need to have
- 46:42Speaker 1: used technology to interpret data better so that we're spending
- 46:46Speaker 1: our time. And when I say we, I mean a
- 46:48Speaker 1: banker as someone who's who's talking to a client on
- 46:52Speaker 1: interpreting and advising them, but making people smarter through their
- 46:57Speaker 1: use of technology. And I think that's going to be, um,
- 47:01Speaker 1: probably the biggest change to our industry, and we're working
- 47:04Speaker 1: on it every day. So my we're down to our
- 47:06Speaker 1: last two questions because I know they're coming to drag
- 47:09Speaker 1: you away shortly. UM, So what sort of advice would
- 47:12Speaker 1: you give to a millennial or a recent college grad
- 47:15Speaker 1: who came to you and said, I'm thinking about going
- 47:18Speaker 1: into finance. What would you tell them? I would say,
- 47:22Speaker 1: take a chance and go for it. Make sure you
- 47:24Speaker 1: love it. I think one of the things that's happened
- 47:26Speaker 1: in our industry that's been good is through the crisis
- 47:29Speaker 1: there was a fair shakeout, and I think there was
- 47:31Speaker 1: a time when everybody gravitated toward finance because it was
- 47:34Speaker 1: a thing to do. It was a way to make
- 47:36Speaker 1: a lot of money if the money. I think that
- 47:39Speaker 1: cohort has been sort of selected out. I think it's
- 47:41Speaker 1: select it out. Rising title of sallship. I think it's
- 47:45Speaker 1: a great thing, um, and I think it's better for
- 47:47Speaker 1: those individuals they didn't love what they were doing. Those
- 47:49Speaker 1: are the people, you know, if you're miserable doing this,
- 47:52Speaker 1: that's kind of crazy because there's so much exciting things,
- 47:54Speaker 1: so many things going on, and so I think we
- 47:57Speaker 1: cleared that out, and so I would say, make sure
- 47:59Speaker 1: you of it, um, and take some chances. I do
- 48:02Speaker 1: find sometimes that are our younger UH employees or younger
- 48:08Speaker 1: members of our team tend to be very, um, a
- 48:12Speaker 1: little bit risk averse. You know, they're they're they're they're purposeful,
- 48:15Speaker 1: so they're moving toward a purpose, maybe maybe more strongly
- 48:18Speaker 1: than certainly I was. You know, I came in on
- 48:20Speaker 1: intending to stay in the industry. I look to the
- 48:23Speaker 1: next thing to make sure I would be learning, having fun,
- 48:26Speaker 1: you know, working with people I liked. I didn't necessarily
- 48:28Speaker 1: say I wanted to be the head of the private bank.
- 48:30Speaker 1: I wanted to be this. They're more purposeful, which is good,
- 48:34Speaker 1: but I think it makes them a little bit less
- 48:37Speaker 1: willing to jump and move to Argentina, for example, or
- 48:41Speaker 1: gives you the ability to pivot towards an opportunity that
- 48:43Speaker 1: comes along as opposed to just being on the straight
- 48:45Speaker 1: and arrow. Yeah, I don't don't have blinders on. I
- 48:47Speaker 1: think that's really important. I think it's important to choose
- 48:50Speaker 1: to work with someone you think you'll they'll learn from.
- 48:53Speaker 1: Who you work for so important, it might even be
- 48:56Speaker 1: more important than what you do. One of the most
- 48:58Speaker 1: surprising things Arthur of It had said when we had
- 49:01Speaker 1: him on the show was don't be afraid to pick
- 49:04Speaker 1: up and move to a new city and say I'm
- 49:05Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna try Chicago or New Orleans or Cleveland
- 49:10Speaker 1: for a year or two, just to get that sort
- 49:12Speaker 1: of experience. And if I come back to wherever, New York,
- 49:16Speaker 1: San Francisco, wherever, Hey, at least I've experienced something else
- 49:19Speaker 1: and I have a frame of reference abroad. I have
- 49:22Speaker 1: to say, you know why I think. I mean, I
- 49:25Speaker 1: had studied abroad in in college, but moving abroad early
- 49:30Speaker 1: in my career was one of the best things I did.
- 49:32Speaker 1: It's it's eye opening, and you know, I sometimes I'll
- 49:34Speaker 1: have a conversations with people where they don't they don't
- 49:36Speaker 1: want to move across country or they don't want to move.
- 49:38Speaker 1: You know, you get a job in Hong Kong and
- 49:40Speaker 1: a heartbeat. I could give people Hong Kong London. Just
- 49:42Speaker 1: take advantage of it. I mean, the world is an
- 49:44Speaker 1: incredible place, and um I I that's my advice would
- 49:48Speaker 1: be to be open minded and to take some risks
- 49:50Speaker 1: and make sure they're doing something they love. Take risks,
- 49:53Speaker 1: do something you love. All right, let me let me
- 49:55Speaker 1: see if I can remember that and our last question,
- 49:58Speaker 1: and I'm going to change the aid on this a
- 50:00Speaker 1: little bit. What is it that you know about banking
- 50:03Speaker 1: and investing and running a company that you wish you
- 50:07Speaker 1: knew twenty plus years ago? You know when people always
- 50:11Speaker 1: ask me, what would you go back and do differently?
- 50:13Speaker 1: That's that type of question. I always say nothing because
- 50:16Speaker 1: I'm afraid that I wouldn't get to where I am now.
- 50:19Speaker 1: The path is what leads you to to what you know.
- 50:23Speaker 1: But all that said, what do you wish you not?
- 50:26Speaker 1: I'm not asking you what you would have done differently?
- 50:28Speaker 1: What did? What do I wish you knew way back
- 50:31Speaker 1: when there is that you know today you didn't know
- 50:33Speaker 1: then they I wish I knew how successful Amazon would be,
- 50:37Speaker 1: an Apple would be. I mean, you know, investing the
- 50:42Speaker 1: SEC has a temporal department that prevents people from going
- 50:45Speaker 1: back in time, and I'm not allowed, so you can't.
- 50:47Speaker 1: You can't use that. But but just as a like,
- 50:50Speaker 1: I think back when I was younger, and I'm like, oh,
- 50:53Speaker 1: what an idiot I was. If only I had at
- 50:56Speaker 1: least a little more awareness of the world around me.
- 50:59Speaker 1: So that's like, I wish I knew that it was
- 51:01Speaker 1: actually a full planet and it wasn't just involving around me.
- 51:06Speaker 1: But career wise, I understand exactly what you're saying in
- 51:11Speaker 1: terms of you don't want to change the path, but
- 51:13Speaker 1: I would love to know a lot of the things
- 51:15Speaker 1: I know today in terms of, uh, you know, making sure.
- 51:20Speaker 1: I think there were times in particularly in my career,
- 51:24Speaker 1: in particularly when I was doing M and A, where
- 51:26Speaker 1: I buried myself in my work. Um and as you know,
- 51:30Speaker 1: as my husband likes to remind me, you thought it
- 51:32Speaker 1: was the coolest thing in the world. You never would
- 51:33Speaker 1: have wanted to be somewhere else on a Friday night
- 51:35Speaker 1: or Saturday night. But I do think sitting back and
- 51:38Speaker 1: saying there you could have backed off a little bit
- 51:42Speaker 1: and done some more really interesting things, and you didn't
- 51:45Speaker 1: need to be so focused on one part of your life,
- 51:51Speaker 1: probably for as long as I would have I tend
- 51:54Speaker 1: to get that way when I'm focused on some hyper
- 51:57Speaker 1: I'm hyper focused on it, and that that can be
- 51:59Speaker 1: a benefit. But you know, I think your biggest strength
- 52:01Speaker 1: is usually your biggest weakness. Your biggest strength is okay,
- 52:05Speaker 1: there's a blind side there, and right, the tendency to
- 52:09Speaker 1: take it to to a place that's one notch beyond
- 52:13Speaker 1: where it should have gone. Short, Kelly, thank you so much.
- 52:16Speaker 1: This has been absolutely fascinating. We have been speaking with
- 52:20Speaker 1: Kelly Coffee. She is the CEO of JP Morgan Private Bank.
- 52:26Speaker 1: If you enjoy this conversation, be sure and look up
- 52:28Speaker 1: an inch or down an inch on Apple iTunes and
- 52:31Speaker 1: you could see the other ninety or so of these
- 52:34Speaker 1: podcasts that we've done. I would be remiss if I
- 52:38Speaker 1: did not thank my booker and producer, Taylor Riggs are
- 52:42Speaker 1: chief engineer Charlie Bohmer. Today's sound engineer is Genie. Is
- 52:46Speaker 1: that right? And my head of research is Michael Batnick,
- 52:51Speaker 1: who helps prepare all the questions for this. You've been
- 52:54Speaker 1: listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio