JP Morgan has finished retooling its fund business after its merger with Bank One and is readying a new strategy to grow assets under management, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The bank, which has historically gone after high-net worth clients, plans to leverage Bank One's Midwestern clientele, selling JPMorgan's in-house funds through bank branches. JPMorgan also plans to boost assets under management by selling funds outside of its own distribution channel.

"The most important growth opportunity for the mutual-fund marketplace is the third-party market," George Gatch, chief executive of JP Morgan Funds, told the Journal.

"Institutional and high net-worth clients will always be an important part of our franchise, but we want to offer the same capabilities to the broad marketplace," said Gatch.

JPMorgan Funds has so far cut 21 funds as a result of the Bank One merger and now has 101 funds with a total of $201 billion of domestic fund assets under management. JPMorgan's total asset management business manages approximately $783 billion.  

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