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JP Morgan Set for Historic UK Expansion this Week
America’s biggest bank will launch a digital platform in the UK this week.
JP Morgan‘s first international expansion in its 222-year history is on the horizon with the launch of Chase, a digital UK banking offering.
Announced back in January, the project has taken on 400 employees in the UK as JP Morgan seeks to follow in the footsteps of Goldman Sachs, who launched its Marcus digital banking service back in 2018.
Chase will initially offer checking accounts along with a rewards program through its new UK app. It also plans personal loans, investments and mortgages further down the line.
Sanoke Viswanathan, CEO of JPMorgan’s international consumer division, said the bank’s UK expansion was a “very big strategic commitment”.
“We will spend hundreds of millions before we get to break-even and get to a place where this is a sustainable business, and we’re not in a rush,” he told the Financial Times.
Earlier in June, the bank snapped up British digital wealth manager and robo-advisor Nutmeg as part of its expansion plans.
In an letter to shareholders, JP Morgan CEO James Dimon’s said fintechs have “done a great job in developing easy-to-use, intuitive, fast and smart products” while touching on languishing digital transformation issues as a result of “inflexible legacy systems” and “extensive regulation”.
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JPMorgan’s arrival in the UK will place further pressure on the country’s traditional lenders, with the US giant set to take on domestic startups such as Monzo, Revolut and Starling.
Back in January of this year, Gordon Smith, CEO of Consumer & Community Banking and co-President of JPMorgan Chase, said: “We are bringing Chase to the UK because we want to provide customers with a new banking choice – one that will enable them to benefit from a simple and exceptional banking experience, built on the significant capabilities of JPMorgan Chase.
“The UK has a vibrant and highly competitive consumer banking marketplace, which is why we’ve designed the bank from scratch to specifically meet the needs of customers here.”
