Monday, July 29, 2013
JPMorgan Says It May Leave The Physical Commodities Business After The NYT Takes Aim At It
JPMorgan, a major player in commodities on Wall Street, said in a press release that it "is
pursuing strategic alternatives for its physical commodities business,
including its remaining holdings of commodities assets and its physical
trading operations."The announcement comes hot on the heels of a New York Times piece detailing a Goldman Sachs aluminum warehousing scheme it asserts has cost consumers $5 billion over the last three years.
Goldman's foray into the warehousing business is a prime example of the ingenuity displayed by investment banks over the past decade since they first became involved in physical commodities in coming up with new ways to generate revenue.
The New York Times piece also took aim at JPMorgan:
As Goldman has benefited from its wildly
lucrative foray into the aluminum market, JPMorgan has been moving ahead
with plans to establish its own profit center involving an even more
crucial metal: copper, an industrial commodity that is so widely used in
homes, electronics, cars and other products that many economists track
it as a barometer for the global economy.
In 2010, JPMorgan quietly embarked on a
huge buying spree in the copper market. Within weeks — by the time it
had been identified as the mystery buyer — the bank had amassed $1.5
billion in copper, more than half of the available amount held in all of
the warehouses on the exchange. Copper prices spiked in response.
At the same time, JPMorgan, which also
controls metal warehouses, began seeking approval of a plan that would
ultimately allow it, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, a large money
management firm, to buy 80 percent of the copper available on the market
on behalf of investors and hold it in warehouses. The firms have told
regulators that these stockpiles, which would be used to back new copper
exchange-traded funds, would not affect copper prices. But
manufacturers and copper wholesalers warned that the arrangement would
squeeze the market and send prices soaring. They asked the S.E.C. to
reject the proposal.
The Times noted that separately, JPMorgan faces a potential $500 million settlement for electricity price rigging.Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice has opened a probe into the metals warehousing industry. The move is part of a larger campaign against investment bank involvement in commodities gathering steam in Washington, D.C.
JPMorgan's full statement is included below.
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