JPMorgan Chase Names Berquo to Run Bank’s Businesses in Brazil - Business Exchange

JPMorgan Chase Names Berquo to Run Bank’s Businesses in Brazil

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second- largest U.S. bank, named Claudio Berquo to run the firm’s investment bank, asset management and treasury and securities services businesses in Brazil.

Berquo, 48, will continue as head of the private bank in Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, and report to Eduardo Cepeda in that role, according to an internal memo from Mary Erdoes, chief executive officer of the asset management unit, and Nicolas Aguzin, head of Latin America. Tasha Pelio, a spokeswoman for the New York-based bank, confirmed the memo’s contents.

JPMorgan is extending its reach internationally as rivals struggle to return to profitability. The bank is in talks to buy the half of U.K. brokerage Cazenove Group that it doesn’t already own, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“As strong as our business is in Latin America, there is still tremendous opportunity for growth, particularly in Brazil,” Erdoes and Aguzin said in the memo.

Berquo, who has been at JPMorgan for 15 years, was previously responsible for JPMorgan’s wealth management business in Brazil. Prior to that he was a senior executive in the investment bank, the memo said.

JPMorgan ranks fifth in Latin American equity sales this year, according to Bloomberg data. Brazilian economists raised their gross domestic product growth forecast to 5 percent in 2010, from 4.83 percent last week, according to a central bank survey of about 100 professionals.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Hester in New York at ehester@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: November 16, 2009 15:57 EST"