JPMorgan Chase Closing 25% of First Republic’s Branches After Acquisition

J.P. Morgan Chase will close 21 of the 84 branches of its recent acquisition, First Republic Bank .

About 100 employees will be affected by the closures , Reuters reported Thursday (June 1). They will be offered six-month transition assignments and will then be able to apply for other roles at J.P. Morgan.

Reach for comment by PYMNTS, a J.P. Morgan Chase spokesperson said in a statement: “After a thorough review, we have decided to close 21 former First Republic Preferred Banking Offices by the end of 2023, representing a quarter of the offices we acquired. These locations have relatively low transaction volumes and are generally within a short drive from another First Republic office.”

This news comes about a week after it was reported that J.P. Morgan Chase notified 1,000 First Republic Bank employees — about 15% of the failed lender’s workforce — that they won’t be offered jobs after the takeover by J.P. Morgan Chase.

The company also told the other 85% of the acquired bank’s employees that they will be offered either full-time roles or transitional ones that will last for three to 12 months.

J.P. Morgan Chase acquired First Republic Bank May 1 after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took over the struggling lender amid the second-biggest banking collapse since 2008.

About six weeks earlier, J.P. Morgan Chase and 10 other large U.S. banks made uninsured deposits totaling $30 billion into First Republic to ensure it had the liquidity it needed at a time when regional banks were slipping and there were continued waves of worry over bank runs .

J.P. Morgan Chase cut 500 positions across its own divisions in late May, with most of them being technology and operations roles. The cuts were a part of periodic staff trimming. At the same time, the firm is looking to fill 13,000 open positions.

Another financial industry giant, Goldman Sachs Group , will be cutting fewer than 250 jobs across a range of roles due to a continuing slowdown of investment bank deal-making on Wall Street.