(Bloomberg) — Wealth supervisor Azura employed former JPMorgan Chase & Co. govt Jerry Garcia to buttress its presence in Miami, turning into the newest agency to ramp up enlargement efforts in South Florida. 

Garcia, 53, began final month as head of Azura’s Latin America enterprise, in accordance with a press release Wednesday. He beforehand helped lead JPMorgan’s non-public financial institution for Latin America after working on the New York-based agency for greater than a decade.

Firms together with Normal Atlantic, Rothschild & Co. and BNP Paribas SA have opened workplaces in Miami and surrounding areas inside the previous 12 months, fueling a increase within the area as different elements of the US actual property market are roiled by rising rates of interest.

In the meantime, billionaires like Ken Griffin, Dan Loeb and Josh Harris have scooped up waterfront Miami Seashore mansions, serving to to extend the variety of high-net-worth people within the metropolis by 75% over the previous decade, in accordance with funding migration agency Henley & Companions. 

Latin American nations shifting left politically over the previous 12 months has additionally sparked a flood of cash out of the area, strengthening Miami’s fame as a haven for super-rich Latinos. Folks and firms in Latin America’s 5 largest economies final 12 months pulled about $137 billion out of their international locations, in accordance with information from the Institute of Worldwide Finance. 

Learn extra: Latin America’s Socialist Wave Sparks Historic Flight of Capital

Azura, began by former Julius Baer Group banker Ali Jamal, 41, has about 40 staff globally. It’s added greater than 20 professionals for the reason that begin of 2021 from companies together with Credit score Suisse, Barclays Plc and UBS Group AG.

Specializing in billionaire fortunes, the wealth supervisor opened a New York workplace in March run by former Credit score Suisse govt Anthony Kontoleon, including to areas in London, Geneva and Monaco. Azura additionally opened a Singapore workplace in 2020 and one in Dubai final 12 months.

Garcia, who left JPMorgan final 12 months, was a managing director and market supervisor for the agency’s private-banking operations in Central America and South America. 

Jamal, a former Kuwaiti military officer, launched Azura in 2019 with about $2 billion of belongings underneath advisory after most not too long ago working as Julius Baer’s head of key purchasers for rising markets. That quantity has now grown to virtually $4 billion, in accordance with the assertion.

–With help from Felipe Marques and Jordan Fitzgerald.