JPMorgan Ends Use of Safe Deposit Boxes

Safe deposit boxes, a longtime fixture at banks worldwide, will soon be a thing of the past at one major banking chain.

As Bloomberg News reported Friday (Sept. 30), JPMorgan Chase has begun to phase out the boxes, no longer allowing customers to rent new boxes.

The report said that if a Chase branch closes, the boxes will close with it, with box-holders unable to rent a new box at a new location.

“We made a business decision to stop offering new safe deposit boxes as of December 2021, but that doesn’t affect current customers who have boxes,” said bank spokesman Tom Kelly.

Read more: Keeping Pace With the Evolving Demands of Money Mobility

The move comes at a time when 67% of consumers in the U.S. are accessing their bank via digital channels, whether that means checking their balances, paying bills, or monitoring transaction alerts. And Bank of America CEO Bryan Moynihan said recently that 85% of deposits are carried out digitally, with just 15% even involving a teller.

Related: SMBs Prefer Digital Tools Over In-Branch Banking

This shift is happening in commercial banking as well, PYMNTS has reported. Because small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) now show a strong leaning toward digital solutions, the desire for in-branch banking has decreased.

A report from EY, for example, showed that nearly 70% of SMBs are seeking to manage as many aspects of their businesses through digital touch points as possible, and of 12 factors that SMBs consider when choosing a financial services provider, having a physical presence in the form of an office or branch came in last in terms of importance.

The reduced focus on in-branch banking is shown in the share of SMBs reporting visits to their financial institutions’ physical branches. The EY report found that in the last year, there was a 38% decline in SMBs visiting their FIs’ physical branches and a 24% drop in ATM usage.

Reached for comment by PYMNTS, Kelly said the bank had nothing to add beyond its comments in the Bloomberg piece. He declined to say how many safe deposit boxes the bank still had in operation.