JPMorgan Chase plans ‘fintech’ site in Silicon Valley

JPMorgan Chase & Co on Friday announced that it is to open a new campus for financial technology, or “fintech,” in Silicon Valley in 2020, staffed by more than 1,000 workers.

The New York-based financial giant, the biggest US bank by assets, is to build the new campus in Palo Alto, California, which is also home to Stanford University.

It announced a location in the tech-rich city for a project that is expected to break ground next year.

“The addition of a first-class location is a key step for growing our presence in the [San Francisco] Bay Area,” Bill Wallace, head of digital, consumer and community banking at JPMorgan, said in a statement. “This is an important market for us and we’re looking forward to expanding our footprint and attracting more of the area’s top talent.”

The move came as banks such as Bank of America Corp and Wells Fargo & Co cut retail branches as more consumers shift to digital banking, particularly through mobile phones.

Last year, JPMorgan acquired WePay, a tech start-up that provides payment processing to software platforms. The company has also formed partnerships with fintech companies Bill.com and On Deck Capital Inc.

More than 275 WePay employees, along with chief executive officer and co-founder Bill Clerico, are to move to the Palo Alto campus, the statement said.

In August, JPMorgan announced a push into online investing, offering 100 free trades and low fees to attract more millennial customers.

JPMorgan chief executive officer Jamie Dimon has dismissed the bitcoin currency as a “fraud,” but touted other leading fintech pursuits as potentially transformative for global finance.

The new office is to feature “a modern workplace design and amenities that matter most to employees and state-of-the-art technology to increase collaboration,” the company said.

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