Chase, Citizens, First Republic and Trustco customers were affected by the closure of 23 branches in one week – is YOURS affected?

Banks submitted applications to close 23 branches in a single week last month; JPMorgan Chase alone announced plans to close 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 earlier, First Republic served California startups struggling to pay lenders during the post-pandemic tech lull.

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

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

(See full list of closures below)

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“The majority of the closures are occurring in California, where we already have a significant network of Chase branches,” a JPMorgan Chase spokesperson said in a statement to DailyMail.com.

Also, there was one in New York and another in Boston.

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

When he made that announcement, he also revealed that while he would continue to close some First Republic locations, some would be renamed simply ‘JPMorgan’ and continue to operate with the same customers.

Those branches “will focus on offering a unique experience to affluent customers,” the spokesperson said.

There will be about 20 of them and 10 will be in California.

“It is important to note that after we convert deposit platforms later this year, First Republic customers will have full access to all 4,800 Chase branches,” they added.

Mark O’Donovan, 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 that its customers love, and combine it with the scale that it has. JPMorgan.”

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

In June, it announced plans to close 21. It said the selected branches had “relatively low transaction volumes and are generally located a short drive from another First Republic office.”

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

Chase also said it would open five branches that week. They were not concentrated in California, but 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.