The early word out of JP Morgan Chase is that the bank plans to create one brand by merging its JP Morgan Fleming and newly acquired One Group fund divisions. The bank will pick up One Group Funds if its purchase of Bank One goes through as planned. The $58 billion deal was announced Wednesday.

Jes Staley, head of JP Morgan's investment management unit, told Reuters on Thursday of the early plans to merge the two fund groups to create what would be the nation's fourth largest fund complex with $205 billion in assets.

"There is clearly an advantage in having it branded as a single mutual fund company, which we will do," Staley told Reuters. "We'll merge the boards and that sort of thing as soon as we get the co-operation there, which I'm sure we will."

"Going from 17th to fourth biggest takes us a long way to fulfilling our ambitions for J.P. Morgan to have a significant presence in the retail asset management business," he reportedly added.  

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