Factbox: Banks jumped into commodities trading

(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's proposed plans to reform trading at banks follows a sustained period of expansion in the commodities and energy sectors by financial institutions.

Goldman Sachs is the biggest bank in commodities with a Value at Risk -- the industry standard measure for how much of a banks' own money is at risk on any given day -- which has hovered at around $40 million over the past two years.

J.P. Morgan has recently moved into second place with a commodities-market VaR of just over $30 million on average last year.

The bank is in exclusive talks to buy the RBS Sempra commodities joint venture in a deal worth about $4 billion.

Morgan Stanley is in third place with a VaR of around $25 million.

The following are some facts about banks' commodities business.

JP Morgan Chase

Global head -- Blythe Masters

History -- Acquired Bear Stearns in March 2008 and increased the bank's commodities business. Expanded its presence again in February 2009 when it completed the purchase of key parts of UBS commodities.

Focus -- Actively trades oil, refined products, power, natural gas, coal and emissions. Also active in agricultural commodities such as palm oil and cocoa and base metals.

Growth plan -- To be a top-tier franchise globally.

RBS SEMPRA

Global head -- Kaushik Amin. He joined in May 2009 and formerly worked for Lehman Brothers as global head of liquid markets.

History -- The commodities joint venture between the Royal Bank of Scotland and Sempra Energy was created in April 2008. European Commission state aid requirements will force RBS to divest its share over the next four years.

Focus -- Mainly active in physical markets and its main markets are crude oil, base metals, European power gas and coal and North American gas and power. It also trades U.S. agricultural products and emissions.

GOLDMAN SACHS

Global head -- Isabelle Ealet

Staff -- Has more than 200 commodity professionals in locations throughout the world, such as New York, Calgary, Houston, London, Sydney, Singapore and Tokyo

History -- Entered the commodities business in 1981 with the purchase of J. Aron.

Focus -- Serving corporate clients and financial investors ranging from hedge funds to institutional investors and private equity firms. It is one of the few investment banks in the world that physically trades and ships crude oil.

Growth plan -- Deliver customized risk management for commodities.

BANK OF AMERICA

Global co-heads -- David Goodman and Rob Jones, based in London and Houston.

History -- Merrill Lynch acquired the energy trading businesses of Entergy-Koch, LP.

Focus -- Commodities business includes structuring, trading and marketing natural gas, power, crude oil, refined products, coal, emissions, metals, commodity indices, and structured notes. The company is involved in both financial and physical markets.

Growth plan -- In August 2009, the company announced that it intends to expand its commodities team by 25 percent over the next two to three years in anticipation of a strong demand for commodities.

DEUTSCHE BANK

Global head -- David Silbert

History -- Launched a five-year expansion plan in commodities and energy in 2007.

Focus -- Deutsche is active in oil, refined products, metals, gas, power, agriculture and carbon markets, financial investor products. Has a spot presence in metals and uranium but not active in the physical oil business.

Growth plan -- It has increased its headcount by 15 percent in 2009 and plans to continue hiring in 2010.

It recently opened a new office in Houston, Texas and started trading U.S. power and gas. A bank spokesman said it had experienced "spectacular" growth in Asia.

The bank said it has launched 11 new commodity indices, three new commodity systematic mutual funds and one new commodity exchange traded fund this fiscal year.

SOCIETE GENERALE

Global head -- Edouard Neviaski since 2008. He joined SocGen in 1989 as an energy trader.

Staff -- SocGen has between 300 and 400 commodity professionals, including 10 for research alone, based mainly in Paris, London and New York and other locations throughout the world such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Houston and Calgary.

History -- Started in commodity derivatives in 1988 and in commodity financing 30 years ago.

Focus -- Crude, refined oil products, natural gas, coal, CO2, base and precious metals, plastics, grains, sugar and livestock.

Growth plan -- Being among the top five banks and in the commodities realm and double revenues by 2012. Hiring globally and increasing the number of clients by more than 20 percent. The bank also plans to develop its offering for investor clients on flow business, indices and structured products.

BNP PARIBAS

Global head -- Lincoln Payton

Staff -- Over 1,000

History -- Started in commodity derivatives more than 20 years ago and in commodity financing 50 years ago.

Focus -- Active in trading crude, oil products, natural gas, European power as well as base metals and soft commodities.

Traditionally strong in structured financing and helped finance oil major Total's Yemen LNG project.

Growth plan -- The bank said in an e-mailed statement it is expanding its derivatives business to cater to hedge funds.

It is expected to double revenues in commodity derivatives by 2012, supported by the acquisition of activities from Fortis, a bank executive told the Financial Times.

BARCLAYS CAPITAL

Global head -- Benoit de Vitry

Staff -- The bank had 240 people in commodities at the end of the last fiscal year.

History -- Started trading commodities in 2000.

Focus -- Active in oil, refined products, metals, power and gas, coal, agriculturals, emissions and investment products.

Growth plan -- Aims to increase the number of staff in commodities by over 30 percent to 320 by the end of the fiscal year.

The main area of growth is physical markets. Barclays created a shipping division called Pendle in March to support its physical oil trading operations.

CREDIT SUISSE

Global head -- Adam Knight, who joined in 2007 from Goldman Sachs where he was head of global metals trading.

Staff -- At the end of 2008 it had more than 130 staff globally.

History -- Entered the business in 2005 and has accelerated its expansion since 2007.

Focus -- The bank is active in oil and refined products, coal, metals and agricultural commodities such as wheat, soybeans, milk and sugar.

Has a large presence in the physical market through its alliance with Swiss commodities trading house Glencore.

Growth plan -- Has hired 100 people since 2007 and plans to add another 100. It is in the process of closing its U.S. power business but has now started trading European gas and power in-house.

STANDARD CHARTERED

Global head -- Vincent Van Pelt. He joined in 2008 from Bear Stearns where he spent 14 years, mostly as co-head of European equities.

History -- The bank started its commodities business three years ago. It tripled its customer base in 2008 from the previous year.

Focus -- It offers commodity-linked financing and structured products in precious metals, base metals, energy and farm products.

Growth plan -- The bank plans to expand its coal trading operations by hiring more people and will aim to start trading physical commodities trading in 2010. It is keen to expand its presence in sugar and palm oil.

MACQUARIE

Global head -- Andrew Downe

Staff -- 680 in commodities and treasury combined.

History -- Macquarie has provided trade financing and risk management services across the commodities complex since the early 1980s.

It is one of the longest standing providers of agricultural over-the-counter derivatives and tailored risk management services in the financial sector.

Focus -- Macquarie is active in metals, agricultural commodities, oil, products and natural gas.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP

Global head -- Christophe Renaud. He joined in 2006 from Societe Generale where he was a commodity derivatives trader.

History -- Started in gold in 1996 and expanded into base metals and agricultural commodities in late 2000. Since 2000, it has entered the oil, thermal coal, electricity and emissions markets.

Growth plan -- It has hired 12 people in Asia since the start of 2008.

(Reporting by Emma Farge, Ikuko Kurahone, Sambit Mohanty, Jackie Cowhig and Barani Krishnan, Editing by William Hardy)