'I'm shocked that people are shocked,' says JPMorgan executive about private-credit meltdown

By Steve Goldstein

JPMorgan gets peppered with AI questions as it details software exposure

JPMorgan says it has a 'small' software exposure.

The surest sign of market dislocation is when banks start quantifying their exposure to a given issue.

JPMorgan Chase late Monday told investors about its exposure to software companies in wake of the bruising market sell-off that has taken one fund for the sector, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF IGV, down 33% from its highs.

"Another recent topic of market interest is the potential risk in the software industry from the advances in AI," CFO Jeremy Barnum told analysts on Monday as part of a scheduled company update, according to a transcript from S&P Global.

"Our exposure to that industry is small relative to the size of the wholesale portfolio and is concentrated in the enterprise software space. And the exposure to the more vulnerable players in the broader software industry is quite small. Beyond that, the potential impact of AI disruption is obviously not limited to the software industry. So we continue to look across the whole portfolio to identify emerging risks."

Analysts also had AI questions. Wells Fargo's Mike Mayo, bluntly asked whether the bank was an AI winner or loser.

"I could just start off by saying JPMorgan could be an endgame winner in the AI space," said Mary Callahan Erdoes, the company's chief executive of asset management and wealth management. She said AI has helped take out the "no joy work" from employees and make control work less error prone.

Troy Rohrbaugh, co-CEO of the commercial and investment bank, added that even marginal gains in efficiency from AI can make a big difference. "If you look at the size and scale of just something as simple as FX, just 0.25 basis point with our size and scale, just gives us a revenue outcome that other people don't have," he said.

He also took on a question about private capital, which has been reeling from its exposure to software. Blue Owl Capital (OWL) shares have tumbled 30% this year and Ares Management (ARES) has fallen 29%.

"I'm shocked that people are shocked," he said. "I mean the reality is, in this environment, as the world gets more volatile, as you get towards the end of the cycle, this outcome should be expected. So we prepare for all of these scenarios. We stress test our book. We're very thoughtful about the risk we take. We feel that in many ways, we're quite conservative compared to our peer set."

JPMorgan shares (JPM) edged up 0.2% in premarket trade. The stock has slumped 8% this year.

-Steve Goldstein

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