J.P. Morgan Asset Management said it plans to fund research payments from MiFID II client accounts through its P&L, according to a Reuters article.
J.P. Morgan Asset Management, with $1.9 trillion in assets under management, said “Research costs will be paid by the business and not by MiFID II client accounts.” It was not clear what portion of its assets are associated with MiFID II client accounts.
Separately, the parent of M&G Investments – life insurer Prudential plc – will be combining its UK and European insurance businesses with M&G, boosting assets under management to £332 billion ($428 billion).
Our Take
Given the regulatory conflicts between US regulation and MiFID II research inducement rules, some US asset managers are choosing to ring fence European assets under management rather than implement all MiFID II requirements globally. The precision of J.P. Morgan Asset management’s statement, restricting P&L payments to MiFID II client accounts, suggests it may be going the ring fence route.
However, until we have more clarity on JP Morgan’s specific funding approach, we are counting their full global assets under the P&L column of our research funding scoresheet. By doing so we narrow the AUM gap, although the assets under management of investment managers who have publicly declared their intent to fund research payments alongside commissions still exceed those funding through the P&L by 24%.