Current project plans suggest that the platform is being designed to sit on the desktop of a broker or retail investment adviser and will help with buying, customizing and tracking the performance of notes, one of the people said. The bank’s plans may change over time, the person said.
Similar Steps
JPMorgan has taken similar steps to improve efficiency in other parts of its bank. For example, its U.S. consumer- and commercial-banking arm worked with On Deck Capital Inc. to offer an online-lending platform for small businesses that it said would automate its approvals processes, allowing a borrower to get a loan in as little as a day instead of the month previously required.
For structured notes, Goldman’s “Simon” platform is up and running. The bank and competitors can sell products on the platform. The number of individual advisers signed up for the platform has grown five times, to 14,000, Jason Broder, head of the private investor products group in the Americas at Goldman Sachs, said on Nov. 21.
Halo’s online marketplace also allows brokers to buy structured notes from multiple issuers.
"We think the problem with the structured-notes market is that the way they are sold is basically the same way travel agents sold airline tickets 30 years ago," according to Biju Kulathakal, co-founder and chief executive officer of Halo. "But a platform could be like the Expedia or Orbitz for the industry."
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.