Chase, Citizens, First Republic and Trustco customers hit by 23 branch closures in a week – is YOURS affected?

Banks filed to close 23 branches in a single week last month – with JPMorgan Chase alone announcing plans to shut 18 in California alone.

All but one of those branches were locations of First Republic Bank, the failed commercial bank and wealth manager it acquired last year.

Like Silicon Valley Bank, which failed a couple of months prior, First Republic catered to California startups which were struggling to pay back lenders during the post-pandemic tech lull.

The most recent closures were reported between February 18 and 24. Nine were around the San Francisco area, where First Republic was headquartered, and another nine were in Southern California.

Other banks to have reported upcoming closures to their regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), were Citizens, Fifth Third and Trustco, which each closed one. JPMorgan Chase also closed one Chase-branded branch.

JPMorgan Chase, which acquired First Republic last year, notified its regulator that it would shut 19 locations across the US. Pictured is a branch in Palm Desert, California, that will close

‘Most of the closures are in California, where we already have a significant Chase branch network,’ a spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase said in a statement to DailyMail.com.

In addition, there was one in New York and another in Boston. 

JPMorgan Chase has recently has been the only national bank to open more branches than it closed. Last month it said it would open 500 branches across the US over the next three years.

When it made that announcement, it also revealed that although it would continue closing some First Republic locations, a handful would be rebranded to simply ‘JPMorgan’ and continue to operate with the same customers.

Those branches will ‘focus on delivering a unique client experience for affluent clients,’ said the spokesperson.

There will be around 20 of those and 10 will be in California. 

‘It’s important to note that after we convert the deposit platforms later this year, First Republic clients will have full access to all 4,800 Chase branches,’ they added.

Mark O’Donovan, the CEO of Chase Home Lending told Reuters in December: ‘The strategy here is to take some of the white glove service that First Republic had, and their clients love, and marry that with the scale that JPMorgan has.’

JPMorgan added 84 branches when it acquired First Republic last year. 

In June, it announced plans to shut 21. It said the branches selected had ‘relatively low transaction volumes and are generally within a short drive from another First Republic office’.

The latest closures scheduled in February will reduce the total number of First Republic branches to less than 50.

‘JPMorgan Chase is going about a process of integrating First Republic operations into its own and eventually the name of the latter will go away as they are rebranded,’ said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.

‘The remaining customers or depositors should see largely seamless operations and experiences, but might have to find different bank branches if they need help at a brick-and-mortar destination given the closures of the legacy branches.’

In the same week it announced closures, Chase said it would open five branches. They were not concentrated in California, instead spread between Arizona, Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Other banks that said they would open branches were Bank of America, Bank of Greene County in New York and Great Plains Bank.

A total of eight new branches were reported to the OCC.