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JPMorgan Chase plans to add more than 500 branches to its footprint by 2027, with a focus on underrepresented areas, the bank said on Tuesday, according to a statement seen by Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.
Wall Street’s biggest bank wants to open new branches in Boston, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and the Washington DC area, the company said.
JPMorgan, with roughly 5,000 branches, in recent years surpassed Wells Fargo as the U.S. bank with the largest brick-and-mortar footprint.
“It’s a love affair with branches, to be perfectly clear,” Jennifer Piepszak, co-CEO of JPMorgan’s commercial and investment bank, told analysts last year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The new branches will feature a consultation area for customers to have private conversations, changing their focus from the usual teller line, Jennifer Roberts, JPMorgan’s managing director of consumer banking, told Reuters.
“Our branch network is one of the key reasons customers open accounts with us and has helped us attract deposits,” Roberts told the e-service. “We really see our offices as a showcase for the entire company, and it’s an anchor point for us to expand our relationship with clients as we want to be their primary financial partner.”
The bank did not specify the amount that will be invested in the project.
JPMorgan also intends to renovate approximately 1,700 of its existing offices nationwide and hire about 3,500 employees for its network of offices, he said. The lender’s global workforce was 309,926 at the end of December, according to Reuters.
JPMorgan has a branch share of less than 5 percent in 17 major markets and is looking to expand, Marianne Lake, the bank’s managing director of consumer and community banking, said at an investor conference in December.
In an executive shakeup last month, Lake was named sole head of the consumer division, which she previously led with Piepszak.
As part of its growth strategy, JPMorgan has added 650 branches in the past six years and became the first US bank to have branches in the contiguous 48 states, according to The Wall Street Journal.
JPMorgan’s effort comes as some banks are streamlining their operations and reducing their physical presence. There were 77,690 active bank branches in October, according to data from S&P Global. US banks closed 123 branches and opened 80 that month.
JPMorgan plans, however, to close 30 of the approximately 60 remaining branches of the First Republic Bank footprint it bought last year, Roberts told Reuters. Shortly after the acquisition, JPMorgan announced it would close 21 of the bank’s 84 locations by the end of 2023.
“The branches have been a winning strategy for us that is helping us capture more market share,” Roberts told Reuters in December.
