JPMorgan Customers Did Not Take Online Banking Outages Lightly

JPMorgan Chase is facing backlash from customers after the company confirmed on Twitter that its website and mobile app were down.

According to news in The American Banker, JPMorgan only reported the outage. The financial institution didn’t provide a reason behind the glitch, which resulted in criticism on the part of affected customers — who then turned to Twitter to vent and to say that, in addition to online and mobile banking, systems at branches were also impacted. JPMorgan didn’t provide comment to the American Banker.

The outages at JPMorgan come a few months after the company announced the launch of Finn — a new smartphone app designed to allow users to open a bank account, make deposits, issue checks, track spending and set up savings plans all in one place. According to bank officials in communication with Reuters, Finn debit cards arrive by mail and can access cash from 29,000 ATMs.

The first tests of the new app will be for Apple users in the greater St. Louis area, where Chase currently has no branches. “Finn lets us reach new customers and new markets,” Thasunda Duckett, chief executive of Chase Consumer Banking, said in an interview with PYMNTS at the time. The app account, she said, “was built by millennials for millennials.”

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has repeatedly postponed his years-long dream to expand into new states, as it would be costly, require the approval of regulators and could be especially risky when people use branches less often. And Chase can’t buy its way to more depositors because, at its current size, regulators would likely get a good chuckle before firmly saying no. About two-thirds of Chase customers continue to visit branches at least once every three months.

“This is for a different set of customers,” Melissa Feldsher, head of Finn, emphasized.