JPMorgan Chase is bringing its branch network to Washington, hiring as many as 700 new employees under a $20 billion investment program powered by deep Republican tax cuts for U.S. corporations.
While the largest U.S. lender has done business with private and commercial clients in the Baltimore-to-Richmond, Va., corridor since 1999, adding branches will allow it to build consumer and small-business relationships not possible previously. JPMorgan plans to open as many as 70 branches, some before the end of this year, Thasunda Duckett, head of the bank’s consumer business, said in an interview.
The third-largest regional economy in the U.S., the D.C. area is a growing economic center with a well-educated workforce and a significant high-tech presence, an alluring prospect for a bank that has been expanding in the Southeast and plans to move into as many as 20 new markets over the next five years. JPMorgan’s expansion is leveraging the benefits of last year’s federal tax code overhaul, which trimmed its rate by about a third, to invest in community-level growth.
The Washington expansion will bring more than just new branches, CEO Jamie Dimon said Thursday. “We will lend money for affordable housing, home mortgages and small business growth” in a $4 billion commitment to the region over the next five years, he added. The lender is more than doubling a $10 million philanthropic investment and expanding affordable-housing loans to $500 million over five years to support communities such as D.C.’s Wards 7 and 8.
Since 2013, JPMorgan has invested $68 million in the two neighborhoods to build or keep up more than 500 affordable rental homes.
“Far too many of our residents are underbanked,” District Mayor Muriel Bowser said. “We hope this expansion means that we will see more banking, not just where we have them already, but where we need them to be.”
Along with offering an array of digital services, including mobile check deposits, JPMorgan will install state-of-the-art ATMs. The machines offer users a similar look and feel to the company’s mobile app and website, an enhancement designed to create consistency, and the option of using smartphones to confirm their identities instead of the standard numeric identification codes.
“Our ATMs are very smart, and we’re continuing to invest,” Duckett said. “We’re bringing all of our technology.”
