JP Morgan changed one of its oldest policies for SpaceX IPO, as America’s largest bank seeks to win business from the wealth being generated by …

JPMorgan Chase, the largest financial institution in the US, is easing its restrictions on lending against shares owned by company workers and early backers following recent stock market debuts, aiming to capture business from the immense wealth being generated across the tech sector. According to a report by Financial Times, JPMorgan has historically maintained a rule preventing clients from using stock in newly public firms as loan collateral within the initial 135 days of a listing.Ahead of SpaceX‘s high-profile initial public offering (IPO) in June, the lender informed internal banking teams that it would permit borrowing against equity in Elon Musk’s aerospace and artificial intelligence venture well ahead of that timeline, the report said, citing individuals familiar with the decision.

Chasing the AI and aerospace boom

JPMorgan generated $75 million in fees for its role in the SpaceX debut. Internal staff anticipate a comparable lending flexibility will apply when Claude creator Anthropic completes its public float, though formal determinations have not been finalised. While federal securities guidelines require broker-dealers involved in a listing to pause for 30 days before issuing loans backed by newly issued equity, JPMorgan’s standard 135-day waiting period was notably stricter.Other major institutions, such as Goldman Sachs, rarely delay beyond the standard 30-day requirement before approving equity-backed loans. In an official statement, JPMorgan noted that its formal policies stay intact, explaining that its operational safeguards exceed statutory rules while transactions are evaluated individually by weighing factors like trading liquidity.At the biggest AI companies, top software engineers and researchers often get paid millions in large compensation packages that include big chunks of stock. Lending against shares is a favoured approach for wealthy techies looking to generate liquidity without triggering big capital gains tax bills that come from outright stock sales.When valuing stock collateral, financial institutions need to take into account the volatility of trading and the liquidity in the market, as shares can be volatile after listing and employee shares can be locked-in.Despite these balance-sheet considerations, the wave of tech and AI listings offers advisory opportunities. Competing wealth managers are positioning themselves around Silicon Valley to court employees at firms like OpenAI and Anthropic ahead of public offerings that will mint a new class of tech millionaires.