JP Morgan plans to cut hundreds of jobs across consumer division

JP Morgan Chase is planning to cut hundreds of jobs across its consumer division, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people briefed on the matter.

The report did not mention the exact number of jobs to be cut but said the planned layoffs represent about 1% of employees in the unit.

JP Morgan will notify the impacted staff on 6 February and give them a chance to apply for other roles at the bank, according to the report.

The consumer unit includes the credit-card, deposit, home and auto lending businesses, and makes for about half of the bank’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 JP Morgan, the cuts are part of a broader review of operations as customers increasingly access banking services through mobile phones or digital platforms.

Under co-president Gordon Smith, who leads the consumer bank, expense management has been an area of intense focus. JP Morgan cut around 7,000 operations jobs from the unit in the four years through 2018, and the bank said in February that reductions would continue.

Overall headcount in the unit fell 2% to 127,137 at the end of last year, the lowest since 2015, according to the bank’s latest quarterly report.

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% of transactions in the consumer bank were completed through so-called “self-service” channels in 2018, according to the February presentation.

At the same time, it’s been opening up hundreds of branches in new states 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 JP Morgan took over Washington Mutual’s banking operations during the height of the financial crisis.

A JP Morgan spokeswoman declined to comment.