Jamie Dimon, who once said “banks are under assault” from regulators, is now plotting to invade their home turf.
JPMorgan Chase plans to open retail branches in Washington DC and the surrounding suburbs — marking its first expansion into a new territory in years — even as more customers do their banking online, The Post has learned.
The biggest US bank by assets is eyeing a gradual expansion, with plans to open about a dozen branches in DC as well as the Virginia and Maryland suburbs in the first year, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans.
Federal regulators still need to sign off on the plans, but the bank could add hundreds in that area over the next five years, the person added.
The move to expand into Washington rather than Boston or Atlanta — two other cities that have been high on the speculation list — comes as the bank looks to soften its image in Beltway circles.
The outspoken Dimon, who has criticized bank rules passed in the wake of the financial crisis, hinted at the DC expansion last week during the bank’s quarterly earnings call.
“We are thinking about attacking a new city for the first time — in a major way,” he said.
While most banks tend to score low in customer satisfaction, Chase customers are somewhat happier.
Chase ranked in second place for retail banking satisfaction, behind Rabobank, in JD Power & Associates’ most recent survey. JPMorgan is tied with Citigroup for the top spot on the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
JPMorgan dominates New York retail banking with 35 percent of the market. The bank is in 25 states and boasts some 5,600 branches, the second highest behind Wells Fargo, according to a 2014 report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Still, the closest Chase branch to the Capitol is 160 miles away in Trenton, NJ.
The DC expansion comes as the bank pulls back in other parts of the country. Chase is planning to lay off about 5,000 employees, many of them bank tellers, as part of a push by consumer banking CEO Gordon Smith to install more than 13,000 ATMs and rely on mobile banking, which is cheaper.
JPMorgan spends 65 cents on each deposit handled by a teller compared with 8 cents per ATM deposit and 3 cents on deposits via its mobile app, Smith said in a February.
Banks have shied away from expanding their footprint as heightened regulatory oversight has made it tough to acquire smaller rivals, said Bankrate.com analyst Greg McBride.
“Bank branches need deposits to survive and to thrive,” he added. “A large metro area has the potential to ramp up quite quickly.”
A bank spokesman declined to comment.