JPMorgan Hosts 200 Virtual Meetings in Two Days Amid Virus Scare

(Bloomberg) --

Global banks are coming up with alternatives to keep business moving in Greater China, with clients in the midst of the world’s largest work-from-home experiment to contain the spread of the deadly new coronavirus.

After having to call off a conference in China’s technology hub of Shenzhen, U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. instead last week arranged more than 200 virtual meetings in two days. Senior executives at Chinese companies in industries including consumer, manufacturing and technology were connected with institutional investors through video and telephone conferencing.

“We knew we needed to do something different to serve their needs,” Ryan Holsheimer, the Hong Kong-based head of cash equities and equity distribution for Asia Pacific, said in an interview. “That includes leading what we see as an increasing short-term trend - a new normal if you like - of virtual client interactions.”

The virus outbreak comes at a pivotal time for foreign banks such as JPMorgan, which this year will be allowed to take full control of ventures in China as the Communist Party-ruled nation opens its massive financial market. The outbreak has claimed more than 2,100 lives in China and infected more than 75,000 worldwide. Large parts of China’s economy has been shut down, and travel restricted.

To minimize risks, Japanese brokerages have scrapped client events, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. canceled its global partners’ meeting in New York earlier this month. Adopting a similar format, Morgan Stanley will convert its 10th annual Hong Kong Investor Summit into a virtual event instead of taking place at the firm’s offices next month, a spokesman for the company said.

JPMorgan also plans to convert some other conferences in the region into this format, including one in Taiwan next week, which the firm expects about 140 meetings virtually, Holsheimer said.

“In the near term, almost all of our events will be done virtually this way and I think it will be an ongoing trend,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alfred Liu in Hong Kong at aliu226@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Candice Zachariahs at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net, Jonas Bergman, Jun Luo

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