- JPMorgan minimize high-touch fairness buying and selling companies to Citadel Securities after the agency launched a competing enterprise.
- J.P. Morgan Chase employed Elan Luger, who beforehand served as its head of high-touch equities, to steer Citadel Securities’ fairness unit.
- In 2025, JJP Morgan Chase’s general fairness income elevated by 33%, whereas Citadel Securities grew profitably by over 70% throughout Q12025.
JPMorgan Chase and Citadel Securities have discovered themselves at opposing ends of an increasing Wall Avenue competitors.
JPMorgan chase has not too long ago terminated a number of the buying and selling companies it as soon as gave Citadel Securities as the corporate has began a competing service.
The dispute is a symptom of how the strains between consumer and competitor have turn into blurred within the new world of finance.
Citadel Securities Stepped Into JPMorgan’s Lane
For years, high-touch fairness buying and selling has been a bread-and-butter enterprise for main funding banks.
It covers advanced trades that can’t be dealt with purely by way of digital programs, together with research-driven pitches for commerce concepts. JPMorgan has lengthy counted this amongst its core strengths with institutional purchasers.
The Monetary Occasions reported that Citadel Securities modified that dynamic when it introduced plans to construct its personal high-touch fairness buying and selling operation.
“JPMorgan cuts companies for Citadel Securities in conflict over roles”
The Monetary Occasions experiences JPMorgan Chase lowered prime brokerage companies it beforehand supplied to Citadel Securities.
There may be rising pressure after Citadel Securities launched a brand new service for… pic.twitter.com/qYf7UXYfeF
— kristen shaughnessy (@kshaughnessy2) February 28, 2026
The agency, identified for electronically processing billions of trades as a market-maker, was now transferring into territory banks think about their very own. That call set the stage for the conflict that adopted.
To run the brand new enterprise, Citadel Securities went straight to JPMorgan’s bench. It recruited Elan Luger, who had been main JPMorgan’s high-touch equities buying and selling service. That rent alone despatched a transparent message about the place Citadel Securities was headed.
JPMorgan Drew a Line
JPMorgan didn’t sit again after Citadel Securities made its transfer. The financial institution informed Citadel Securities it will now not present high-touch fairness buying and selling companies, in line with folks aware of the matter. This coated dealing with non-electronic trades and delivering research-based suggestions to purchasers.
That stated, JPMorgan didn’t stroll away from the connection altogether. The financial institution continues to supply prime brokerage companies and programmatic buying and selling to Citadel Securities. The financial institution’s separate relationship with the hedge fund Citadel, additionally based by Ken Griffin, has not been affected.
Neither JPMorgan nor Citadel Securities supplied a touch upon the specifics. The 2 companies share a founder in Ken Griffin however function as totally separate companies. The stress between them displays a broader sample enjoying out throughout Wall Avenue.
What Citadel Securities Is Truly Constructing
Citadel Securities made its identify by quietly processing retail investor order flows at large scale. Banks largely stepped again from that house as a result of sustaining the required know-how is enormously costly. That’s the place Citadel Securities constructed its edge over the previous decade.
The brand new high-touch fairness enterprise targets a unique viewers totally. Citadel Securities is now going after massive institutional gamers, together with asset managers like BlackRock and hedge funds like Millennium Administration.
Relatively than routing block trades by way of funding banks, it has been sourcing them straight from traders trying to promote.
The agency beta examined the providing by way of final yr and formally launched it initially of 2026. That launch introduced the competitors with JPMorgan from theoretical to very actual. Each companies at the moment are fishing in the identical pond for a similar purchasers.
The Numbers Present Neither Facet Is Hurting
The equities buying and selling enterprise on Wall Avenue has been performing very effectively in the previous couple of years. The volatility brought on by geopolitical points and modifications in financial insurance policies has ensured that the buying and selling volumes stay excessive. JPMorgan and Citadel Securities have been benefiting from this state of affairs.
JPMorgan’s equities buying and selling enterprise registered a income of over $13 billion in 2025, a development of 33 p.c from the earlier yr.
The income of Citadel Securities, which don’t reveal their financials, grew by nearly 70 p.c within the first quarter of 2025 to $1.7 billion. The competitors is happening in a state of affairs the place each are rising as winners.
At a shareholder occasion Monday, JPMorgan co-head of business and funding banking Troy Rohrbaugh addressed the strain head-on. He informed attendees the financial institution has “an extended observe report” of relationships the place they each compete with and repair companies like Citadel Securities.
Rohrbaugh then added, “I really feel very snug that we are able to maintain our personal and acquire share,” earlier than noting that any floor Citadel Securities positive aspects would possible come on the expense of another person, not JPMorgan.