LDN - Business

JPMorgan rolls out $20 billion investment plan after tax law gains

[January 23, 2018] By Sweta Singh and David Henry

(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co <JPM.N> unveiled a $20 billion investment plan on Tuesday to increase wages, hire more, open new branches and expand its business as it takes advantage of sweeping changes to the U.S. tax law and improved regulatory environment.

The bank joined several other U.S. corporations that have already announced spending plans following President Donald Trump's tax overhaul that is expected to kick-start economic growth in part by offering incentives for capital investment.

Laying out the most explicit use of tax savings announced by any major bank, JPMorgan said it would increase wages for 22,000 employees by an average of 10 percent, ranging between $15 and $18 per hour, hire 4,000 employees and open up to 400 Chase branches in new cities.

The five-year investment plan comes after Chief Executive Jamie Dimon's push to ramp up investment in businesses as the bank has now finished the majority of work it needed to do to clean up troubled home mortgages and comply with tougher capital requirements imposed by regulators after the financial crisis.

The largest U.S. bank by assets will also increase small business lending by $4 billion and increase loans to customers seeking affordable homes by 25 percent to $50 billion.

Analysts expect JPMorgan to save about $4 billion a year on taxes because of the new federal tax law, but have been worried that banks will quickly "compete away" the savings from the new tax law in a bid to take business from one another.

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People pass the JP Morgan Chase & Co. Corporate headquarters in the Manhattan borough of New York City, May 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

Dimon has acknowledged that some of that will happen, but to varying degrees and at different rates in the bank's assorted business lines.

Dimon had set the stage for Tuesday's announcement on its post-earning conference call on Jan. 12, when he said new spending would eat into the bank's savings from lower taxes, but "will enhance our growth in the future."

"It isn't like a giveaway," he had then said.

In a statement on Tuesday, Dimon said "having a healthy, strong company allows us to make these long-term, sustainable investments."

The bank will also increase community-based philanthropic investments by 40 percent to $1.75 billion over five years, it said.

JPMorgan's shares were nearly flat at $114.33 in premarket trading. The stock has risen nearly 37 percent in the past 12 months, outperforming the S&P 500 index's 25 percent increase.

(Reporting by Aparajita Saxena and Sweta Singh in Bengaluru and David Henry in New York; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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