The Banks Are Where the Money Isn’t

Programming note: Money Stuff will be off tomorrow, back on Monday.

One thing that JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of the world’s biggest banks, wants to do is lend money to big corporate and private equity clients. In many ways, JPMorgan seems well suited to doing this: As a giant bank with more than $3 trillion of assets, it employs a lot of people who have good relationships with corporate clients and private equity sponsors, a lot of people who advise on the mergers that create the need for these loans, and a lot of people who are good at making credit decisions. But JPMorgan’s ability to lend money to corporate clients is constrained by a simple problem: Where would it get the money?