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.