JPMorgan Chase has ditched half of its 10 trading platforms in the last two years, and plans to get rid of another three by 2014 in a bid to save $300 million a year.
According to the Financial Times, Jes Staley, head, investment banking, JPMorgan, updated investors yesterday on the $500 million project to streamline disparate technology systems gained through acquisitions and expansion in recent years.
Although the bank expects to make savings of $300 million a year by reducing the number of platforms from 10 to two, the lower costs and improved efficiency could actually reap benefits of $1 billion.
In 2010 JPMorgan employed around 3000 people to manually input trades into systems, says the FT. This has already been reduced to 1700 and is expected to come down to zero by 2014, although some staff are being redeployed.
The project has already cut the cost of a foreign exchange trade from 75 cents to 10 cents and this will fall to five upon completion, says Staley.
JPMorgan to slash trading platforms - FT (subscription)