JPMorgan Chase & Co. is building a group to provide more financing and advice for development in emerging markets, looking to use profit-making operations to support efforts by the international community.
The lender hired Faheen Allibhoy, who spent almost two decades at the International Finance Corp., to run the new development finance institution, according to a statement Tuesday. She will work with JPMorgan’s bankers to identify transactions and investors.
The unit, part of JPMorgan’s corporate and investment bank, will work with existing and prospective clients in government and the private sector. It estimates the firm can use investment banking transactions to finance development projects valued at more than $100 billion annually, according to the statement. Its markets businesses also will find ways to offer support.
“By defining eligible transactions and anticipating their impact, we can help attract much-needed private investment to developing countries,” said Daniel Pinto, co-president of JPMorgan and chief of its corporate and investment bank.
The United Nations estimates that achieving its sustainable development goals for issues including poverty, clean water and gender equality by 2030 will require as much as $7 trillion a year, with an annual funding shortfall of $2.5 trillion in developing countries. JPMorgan’s group will try to help narrow that gap.
Allibhoy will be based at JPMorgan’s New York headquarters. Daniel Zelikow, global head of JPMorgan’s public sector group and co-head of the bank’s infrastructure finance and advisory unit, will chair the unit’s governing board, according to the statement.
The bank said it created “rules-based” criteria to help identify opportunities and aims to generate both financial and developmental returns. The methodology was created with the International Finance Corp. and other groups. It will be reviewed periodically to reflect industry best practices.
Source/s: Saijel Kishan
