JPMorganChase Extends Critical Industries Investment Program to Continental Europe

JPMorganChase is expanding its initiative that aims to strengthen supply chains and support critical industries to Continental Europe.

The bank launched the Security and Resilience Initiative (SRI) in the United States in October and announced in November that it would extend the initiative to the United Kingdom in the following months.

Now, JPMorganChase is expanding SRI across Europe, it said in a Tuesday (April 21) press release.

“For too long, the U.S. and Europe have relied on unpredictable sources for things like critical minerals that are essential to collective security and prosperity,” JPMorganChase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said in the release. “Now, it is in our best interest to address these challenges together — because our security, freedom and economic growth depend on it.”

This $1.5 trillion, 10-year initiative aims to facilitate, finance and invest in five key verticals: supply chain and advanced manufacturing; defense and aerospace; energy independence and resilience; frontier and strategic technologies; and pharma and healthtech, according to the release.

JPMorganChase is investing in talent to facilitate the activation of SRI in Europe, the release said.

SRI will be led in the region by the bank’s CEOs for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Conor Hillery and Matthieu Wiltz, in partnership with Global Banking’s Head of SRI, Jay Horine. Senior bankers Chuka Umunna and Daniel Rudnicki Schlumberger will help advances SRI initiatives in the U.K. and Continental Europe, respectively, per the release.

In addition, JPMorganChase intends to appoint Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, former chief of the U.K. Defence Staff, to the SRI External Advisory Council, subject to regulatory approval. The Council is made up of a dozen leaders from the public and private sectors who help guide SRI’s long-term strategy, according to the release.

“The collective experience of our External Advisory Council is a real force multiplier for SRI and will help support our strategic financing of critical industries to deliver meaningful impact in an increasingly complex global environment,” Dimon said.

When launching SRI in October, JPMorganChase said that as part of the plan, it will make direct equity and venture capital investments of up to $10 billion in select companies to help them boost growth, innovation and strategic manufacturing.