JPMorgan Chase is plotting an expansion of its business in the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley area, which includes Philadelphia, the state of Delaware and the southern part of New Jersey.
Chase announced Monday that over the next five years, the bank will open up approximately 50 new branch locations and add 300 new employees in the Delaware Valley region.
According to the bank, Chase already has a significant footprint in the area, with more than 1 million customers and over 30,000 business clients in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley region. The bank also has more than 11,000 current employees in the area, including its major credit card hub in Wilmington, Delaware.
But the bank plans to expand in the area as part of its plan to open 400 new branches and bring on approximately 3,000 new employees in new markets in the next five years.
“The Delaware Valley is an incredibly important market for us,” said Jamie Dimon, Chase’s chairman and CEO. “We already have thousands of employees here that serve our customers every day. This will create even more well-paying jobs with healthcare and retirement plans for people in the area, and better serve our existing and new customers.”
In addition to adding branches and employees in the area, Chase is also planning on investing $3 billion for mortgage and small business lending over the next five years.
The bank said that its mortgage lending in the area will include lending in low-and moderate-income communities.
Certain borrowers may be eligible to receive as much as $3,000 in homeownership grants that can be used towards closing costs and a down payment.
“To us, this expansion is so much more than building a branch. This is about new relationships with customers, communities and employees,” Thasunda Duckett, CEO of Chase Consumer Banking, said. “When we build a branch, we lift the whole community around it – contractors to build the branches, cafes and other small businesses to support the customer traffic. It’s a very positive ripple effect.”
The expansion into the Philadelphia area mirrors a similar expansion effort underway in the Washington, D.C. area.
Back in April, Chase announced that it was planning a massive expansion in the D.C. area, including adding as many as 70 new branches and hiring up to 700 new employees in northern Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Maryland.
