JPMorgan’s British Retail Bank Chase Expanding Staff, Product Suite

J.P. Morgan‘s British retail bank Chase is continuing to expand its staff as it executes its strategy to move into investment and savings services by integrating its acquired digital wealth manager Nutmeg and to roll out its consumer lending product suite.

Hundreds of people will be added to the staff next year to take its workforce over 1,000. Sanoke Viswanathan, CEO of J.P. Morgan’s international consumer business, told Reuters that since Chase opened its digital doors in September, it’s hired 200 people, bringing its workforce to 800.

Staff will be added at its headquarters in London as well as at its support centers in Edinburgh, Scotland and Manila in the Philippines.

See also: UK Wealth Manager Nutmeg To Become Part Of JPMorgan

Chase, J.P. Morgan’s first overseas consumer bank, has already processed over a million transactions and hundreds of millions of pounds, buoyed in part by the increase in spending as Christmas gets closer.

The acquisition of Nutmeg brings more than 140,000 clients and over £3.5 billion of assets under management. In Britain, Chase plans to first push into investment and savings services by integrating Nutmeg before launching consumer lending products, according to the report.

Read more: JPMorgan to Debut Omniservice UK Digital Bank

Chase is anticipated to lose money while it widens its reach and product suite and moves towards profitability, Viswanathan told Reuters. The Chase digital retail bank will be used as a model to launch in additional markets across continental Europe in the upcoming years, he added.

Viswanathan told Reuters that Chase’s performance has so far exceeded internal expectations and it is “definitely ahead” of its plan.

“We want to be in all the major European markets over time, all being well. The idea is to be pan-European,” he said.

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The opening of a Chase retail bank in the U.K. is also a litmus test for J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon as he mulls plans to take the largest bank in the U.S. international through a digital platform.