JP Morgan Chase & Co. explored options to sell its metal warehouse business. U.S. banks, like Goldman Sachs Group Inc, have in recent months started to seek potential buying interest for their warehouse units.
Last April, Reuters reported that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. explored the sale of its metals warehousing business, Metro International LLC, three years after they bought the firm for US$550 million.
The London Metal Exchange (LME) proposed a rule change to relieve bottlenecks that slow metal delivery out of warehouses. The change of ruling of the LME could potentially cut into profits for the metal warehouse industry. JPMorgan recently started the sales process for its warehousing unit, Henry Bath, though the discussions started before the LME's rule change proposal.
Several U.S. banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, are in talks with the Federal Reserve over their right to operate and own physical commodity resources like oil storage tanks, warehouses, and pipelines. The recent conversion pertains to banks owning companies during the financial crisis. U.S. banking regulations mandate that banks are usually barred from owning the physical commodity assets that they operate.
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