
Banks around the world have cut thousands of jobs as they slash costs to weather a slowing economy/Bloomberg
by BloombergJPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to dismiss several hundred workers from its consumer unit as the lender seeks to rein in costs.
The bank intends to notify affected employees on 6 February 2020 and cuts will be scattered across the division. The consumer unit, which houses the deposit, credit-card, home and auto lending businesses, contributes nearly half of the firm’s revenue.
Banks around the world have cut thousands of jobs as they slash costs to weather a slowing economy and adapt to shifts in consumer behaviour and in digital technology. At JPMorgan, the cuts are part of a broader review of operations as customers increasingly access banking services through mobile phones or digital platforms.
The planned cuts represent about one per cent of employees in the unit and workers will be given the chance to apply for other roles in the firm.
Under co-President Gordon Smith, who leads the consumer bank, expense management has been an area of intense focus. JPMorgan cut around 7,000 operations jobs from the unit in the four years through 2018 and in February 2019 the bank said that reductions would continue. Overall headcount in the unit fell two per cent to 127,137 at the end of 2019, the lowest since 2015.
The New York-based firm has poured billions of dollars into technology to make it easier for customers to access services without the help of traditional workers. More than 80 per cent of transactions in the consumer bank were completed through so-called ‘self-service’ channels in 2018.
Furthermore, the bank has been opening up hundreds of branches in new to attract customers and boost lending—even as its total branch count has slipped. The count fell below 5,000 last year for the first time since before JPMorgan took over Washington Mutual’s banking operations during the height of the financial crisis.
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