America’s largest bank has pledged a further £40 million in philanthropic investments in the UK over five years in a sign of its increasing focus on Britain. The commitment by JPMorgan Chase includes £24 million for measures to improve access to job opportunities, by backing non-profit groups that help disadvantaged young people to start careers and setting up schemes to give people a taste of life at JPMorgan.
An additional £16 million has been earmarked to help Britons who are struggling financially. As part of this, the bank is teaming up with organisations including Fair4All Finance that seek to bolster access to affordable credit for people on lower incomes and will also develop tools aimed at boosting the financial resilience of those who are less well off.
It takes the amount set aside by the New York-based bank for philanthropic initiatives in the UK to £90 million since 2019. There are more measures to come: the bank also announced that it is partnering with the UK government and the state-owned British Business Bank to explore ways it can support small businesses and entrepreneurs here.
Conor Hillery, the bank’s head of investment banking in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, is changing its UK hiring practices “to help lift up the communities in which we do business”
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, welcomed the American group’s pledge: “JPMorgan Chase’s continued investment in the UK shows that our economic plan is working and that the economy is back on track.”
Conor Hillery, JPMorgan’s head of investment banking in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the Wall Street bank wanted to put its financial know-how to good use. “We want to help lift up the communities in which we do business,” he said.
This includes revamping the way JPMorgan fills vacancies in Britain, he said: “What we want to do is change our hiring processes so that we open up career pathways and opportunities into certain entry-level roles that in the past would not have been open to the wider community.”
JPMorgan is America’s largest bank but it also has deep roots in Britain, where it has had a presence for more than two centuries and employs about 22,000 people. It expanded its business here in 2021 when it started a retail digital bank in the UK under its Chase consumer arm and acquired the online wealth manager Nutmeg for about £700 million.
