It is not hard to picture the scene: a sales executive from JP Morgan Investor Services is sitting in front of the operations director of a blue chip asset manager, running through a presentation on why outsourcing is such a good idea. The operations director politely endures the ordeal, then asks: "Why is outsourcing good for my firm, but not for yours?"

When parent JP Morgan Chase announced last month that it was pulling the plug on its seven-year, $5bn (€4.1bn) technology outsourcing deal with IBM, it was doing no favours for its colleagues in investor services, who are betting heavily on the success of its asset manager solutions group, the unit responsible for outsourcing. In the past, the firm said it took its own medicine when it came to outsourcing, but this decision makes a tough job even tougher for the investor services sales team.