JPMorgan Chase to launch new digital retail bank in the UK

By Megha Bhattacharya

JPMorgan Chase has announced that it will be launching a new UK-based digital retail bank in the coming months. The bank will leverage Chase’s brand and will provide products and features tailored to meet the needs of customers in the UK, delivered via a mobile app. Sanoke Viswanathan, former Chief Administrative Officer and Head of Strategy at J.P. Morgan’s Corporate & Investment Bank, has been appointed the CEO of the new digital bank.

“We are bringing Chase to the U.K. because we want to provide customers with a new banking choice – one that will enable them to benefit from a simple and exceptional banking experience, built on the significant capabilities of JPMorgan Chase,” said Gordon Smith, CEO of Consumer & Community Banking and co-President of JPMorgan Chase. “The U.K. has a vibrant and highly competitive consumer banking marketplace, which is why we’ve designed the bank from scratch to specifically meet the needs of customers here.”

According to JPMorgan Chase, the new digital bank is headquartered at Canary Wharf, London, and its customers will be served by a purpose-built customer contact centre in Edinburgh. The bank aims to offer a range of products starting with a new take on current accounts. Chase’s U.K.-based customer contact centre will be central to the proposition, providing fast to access, personalised service around the clock. The offering is currently being piloted in an internal testing phase, prior to public release.

“Our decision to launch a digital retail bank in the U.K. is a milestone, introducing British consumers to our retail products for the first time,” said Daniel Pinto, JPMorgan Chase’s London-based co-President. “This new endeavour underscores our commitment to a country where we have deep roots, thousands of employees and offices established for over 160 years.”

Chase is one of the largest consumer banks in the United States, offering a range of consumer banking products and with nearly 55 million digitally active customers.