The giant lender seeks a source of cheap funds as rivals retrench. Businessweek says that analysts are skeptical...
Charlsey Smedley, a retired schoolteacher in Orlando, started moving her checking account last month to JPMorgan Chase (JPM) from Bank of America (BAC), where she has been a customer for more than 35 years. "The service at Bank of America was O.K., but they just kept adding more and more fees,".
Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's chief executive officer, had people like Smedley in mind when he announced plans in February to open as many as 2,000 branches, more than half of them in Florida and California, expanding the New York-based bank's network by almost 40 percent. He's targeting states dominated by Bank of America, the biggest U.S. bank by deposits, and Wells Fargo (WFC).
The strategy runs counter to Bank of America's plan to close 10 percent of its offices as analysts question whether the industry needs a bank on every corner. As customers cut back on borrowing and mobile and online banking take hold, doubts about the expense of branches have arisen…
Find out the rest of the story at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_27/b4235043634303.htm
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