Near miss for JP Morgan and Citigroup on Archegos blow-up – International Financing Review

Near miss for JP Morgan and Citigroup on Archegos blow-up – International Financing Review

JP Morgan and Citigroup had both explored offering prime brokerage services to Archegos Capital Management prior to the firm’s spectacular collapse, according to several sources familiar with the matter.

The near miss for the US giants underlines how eager many of the world’s top investment banks had been to get a piece of the trading activity from Archegos, the family office of former hedge-fund manager Bill Hwang.

JP Morgan and Citigroup started examining Archegos as a potential prime brokerage client last year – after lobbying by the two banks' investment bankers – but progress was held up by so-called know-your-client processes demanded by risk and compliance departments, sources said, and Archegos blew up before those processes were complete.