JPMorgan’s First Republic Makeover Bucks Branch Closure Trend

JPMorgan is reportedly overhauling branches acquired in the collapse of First Republic Bank.

The country’s largest bank is planning to open several new branches, Reuters reported Monday (Dec. 11), going against a nationwide trend as consumers shift to digital banking.

“Branches have been a winning strategy for us that is helping us capture more market share,” Jennifer Roberts, CEO of Chase Consumer Banking, said in an interview with Reuters.

She added that 75% of the bank’s depositors visit a branch at least once a year. JPMorgan has more than 4,800 branches in the continental U.S., and plans to open another 167 by the year’s end, more than its earlier projection of 150, Roberts said.

Reuters noted that Bank of America is also adding new branches, a reversal from a nationwide decline. American banks shuttered 123 branches and opened 80 in October, bringing the number of active bank branches at the end of that month to 77,690, the report said, citing data from S&P.

And as PYMNTS wrote recently, bank earnings this quarter have suggested “some critical mass as consumers continue to use online channels to conduct at least some aspects of daily financial life.”

Earnings calls for banks that include JPMorgan, Citigroup and Wells Fargo show that “the branch experience itself is changing, and is being reinvented to fit more fully into an omnichannel effort to meet consumers where they want to be met,” that report said.

This fall has also seen reports that bank branches in supermarkets were shutting down at a rate that is seven times higher than that of other branches.

Data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) showed American banks closed 10.7% of their in-store branches in the year ended June 30, and just 1.4% for other branches during the same time frame.

The FDIC took over First Republic in May and sold the company’s operations to JPMorgan, following what was the second-biggest banking collapse seen since the financial crisis of 2008.

When JPMorgan acquired First Republic, it added 84 branches, though it later announced plans to close 21 of those locations.

“Even though there could be some branch network consolidations, the total number of new branches would be higher and you will see our branch network growing,” Roberts said.