Dec 10 (Reuters) - PricingDirect and Alumni, two wholly-owned subsidiaries of the

biggest U.S. bank JPMorgan & Chase ( JPM ), have partnered to provide independent valuations of

private equity securities, as the lender expands its footprint in the sector beyond providing

capital.

Private equity has grown over the past few years, with an increasing number of firms turning

to private credit as the main source of financing their deals. Thus, the need for fair

valuations of such transactions has grown, primarily to ensure compliance with regulatory

standards.

The partnership aims to assist investors to adhere to the Financial Accounting Standards

Board's ASC 820 and meet the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Rule

2a-5, which governs the fair valuation of fund investments, the companies said on Tuesday.

JPMorgan ( JPM ) itself has set aside $10 billion of its own capital for private credit, but that

could grow significantly depending on demand, which shows banks' growing ambition to expand its

reach in the sector.

PricingDirect traditionally focuses on providing fixed income data and analytics to

investors, while Alumni, a startup acquired by the bank last year, specializes in venture

capital data and portfolio solutions.