JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), America’s largest bank, announced today that it would cut an additional 2,000 mortgage banking jobs as the company moves to have its total number of employees under 260,000 by the end of the year.
Additional cuts at JPMorgan
The company had already planned to cut 4,000 mortgage related jobs this year but as interest rates continue to rise and the demand for mortgage refinancing slows, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) decided to up this number to 6,000. The news came in a presentation released just one day before its annual investor’s day. That same presentation also included lowered profit guidance and detailed the slowdown in the bank’s branch growth.
With the cuts, the bank hopes to save $1.5 billion in its mortgage expenses while the company will also hope to trim $1 billion in costs by cutting jobs in its branches.
As a result of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)’s efforts to provide its customers with a number of digital banking options, it has seen online logins increase by 28% between 2010 and 2013. Consequently, JPM plans to continue to reduce its branch staff as fewer customers are physically walking through its doors.
Additionally, the company has no plans to add net new branches either this year or in 2015. Last year the company opened only 16 new branches in stark contrast to the 250 branches it opened in 2011 and the 106 it added in 2012.
Trading today
Shares of the country’s largest bank dipped 0.21% to $57.91 ahead of Tuesday’s opening bell. As of this writing (10:31 EST) , shares were trading at $57.44, down $0.59 or 1.02%. The bank’s shares have rallied almost 22% over the past 12 months.
Tomorrow’s investor’s day will be the first time that management will engage with investors following the completion of a $13 billion mortgage settlement with the U.S. government last November.
