JPMorgan Chase hires two senior bankers to bolster consumer and retail investment team

In this file photo, the JPMorgan Chase & Co. logo is displayed at their headquarters in New York. (AP / Seth Wenig)

JPMorgan Chase has hired two managing directors to strengthen its consumer and retail investment banking unit, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Friday.

Brian Esmond will join in Los Angeles from Centerview Partners. Bryan Fleming will be based in New York after leaving Bank of America, where he worked as a managing director in retail and consumer investment banking.

Both are expected to start later this year and will report to Jonathan Dunlop, Patrick Gallagher and Aaron Weisbrod, the memo said.

JPMorgan’s investment banking fees rose seven per cent to US$2.5 billion in the second quarter from a year earlier, underpinned by a rise in mergers and acquisitions and debt underwriting.

The move was first reported by Bloomberg News.

(Reporting by Nupur Anand in New York and Prakhar Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)