The new head of syndicated finance in JPMorgan Chase’s commercial bank aims to boost connections across the rest of the firm to enhance the middle-market client experience. 

Ed Pyne, who’s been at the bank for about 24 years, was named head of syndicated finance for JPMorgan commercial banking in March. Previously, he led the Northeast and Canada leveraged finance team for global investment banking. 

New York City-based JPMorgan, which has 2,000 commercial bankers across the U.S., has had a syndicated finance business serving the middle market for nearly two decades, and has an experienced roster of bankers and the right products, Pyne said.  

Pyne said he aims to enhance the “trusted adviser” mindset. He also plans to lean on his ties to other areas of the bank, such as the midcap investment banking practice, bolstering that advisory approach in conjunction with lending, he said.

“What I can do is help connect the dots across the rest of the firm, as well as bring that consultative approach to the clients” that goes beyond the product being discussed, he said in a recent interview. 

That’s a priority for Pyne because it’s what clients are increasingly looking for, he said. 

“We’re seeing content differentiation mean more today than it ever has, especially in volatile markets. People want the institutional know-how.”  

Syndicated loans, a type of financing that involves a group of lenders, is a “grown-up” financing solution, Pyne said, for companies moving out of bilateral lines of credit into bigger credit facilities that can serve more complicated financing needs and provide access to capital.

For the bank, it can be a client’s “gateway” to other services the lender offers, he said. 

“You're providing credit, you're doing capital, you're getting to know the company, you're starting to understand what they need, and then there's a whole suite of opportunities that come out of that,” Pyne said.

That’s why it’s “critical that we are a very active lender in this space, so that we can ultimately grow with our clients,” and connect them with financial sponsors or strategic exits, for example, he said. 

“It often starts with lending as almost the ground floor,” Pyne said.

In the first quarter, the lender’s commercial and investment banking net revenue jumped 19%, to $23.4 billion. Net income climbed 30%, to $9 billion.   

In a lead bank role, JPMorgan leans on its relationships across the industry to tap other lenders to participate in a syndicated loan.

“We have very deep relationships with the regional banks who play in the space,” he said. “If we're really trying to find that last dollar, nobody can do it better than us because our Rolodex is as big as anybody else's on the Street.”

Sometimes, JPMorgan ends up in the same credit facility as fellow large banks Bank of America or Wells Fargo, but more often, they’re competing, Pyne said. 

“It's a little bit of high competition, and then everybody plays nice in the sandbox once the decision is made,” Pyne said.  

In serving commercial clients with up to $2 billion in annual revenue, the country’s biggest bank pitches itself to growing businesses as the right partner to have from the beginning, instead of the bank that companies turn to after they’ve outgrown smaller lenders, Pyne indicated.

“When you're getting to that size, it gets a lot more complicated,” he said, and companies are thinking more strategically and globally.

“It is a space that is highly competitive,” he said. “A lot of borrowers want the cheapest price, widest terms, and that’s going to be it, that’s how they make their decision.” 

Others, he said, see long-term value in the suite of products and solutions JPMorgan offers.

The bank’s message of “it's better that we know you sooner, earlier and better, so that we can help you do the things you want to do in the future,” Pyne said, “really resonates a lot with companies.”

Still, amid “a pretty frothy credit market” that’s seen more borrower-friendly terms, looser covenants and competition from direct lenders, the bank strives to be disciplined, he said.

“Are we maintaining the right level of credit discipline in some of the opportunities we're looking at?” Pyne said, adding that there have been “selective opportunities to push back a little bit on terms” recently.