(Bloomberg) -- J.P. Morgan’s asset-management division promoted James Peagam to head of global insurance solutions, an operation that oversees $78 billion of client funds.
Peagam will be based in New York and report to Jed Laskowitz and Mike O’Brien, co-heads of global investment management solutions, J.P. Morgan said in an e-mailed statement. Peagam takes on some duties previously handled by Matthew Malloy, who also worked with pensions and sovereign wealth funds and departed this year for Neuberger Berman.
Financial firms such as Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, the biggest U.S. bank, have been competing for work with insurers as low bond yields pressure investing portfolios. Insurers hold about $25 trillion in invested assets worldwide, including about $4 trillion overseen by external managers, O’Brien said in an interview. He expects that outsourced figure to double in the next five years.
“We’re now sitting at about No. 9 in the league tables globally, and we’d expect to break into the top five in the next three years,” O’Brien said. J.P. Morgan’s role is expanding as insurers “move away from traditional investment-grade fixed income toward areas like emerging market debt, infrastructure debt, private credit and loans,” he said.
Peagam led the sales team for global insurance solutions and also previously ran the European region of the operation. He joined New York-based J.P. Morgan last year from BlackRock, where O’Brien also worked before moving to the firm in 2010.
The team has increased insurance assets under management 25% each year since then, O’Brien said. Mary Erdoes, chief executive officer of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, has said her group’s work with insurers, endowments and foundations continues to show “outstanding growth.”
Tony Gould will continue to lead global pension solutions, while Roberts Grava will work with central banks and sovereign wealth funds. Both will report to Laskowitz and O’Brien.
