JPM Chase Opens 1,000th Branch in California

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has opened its 1,000th branch in California.

The nation's biggest bank by assets said Monday it would inaugurate the new office, which is located in San Jose, with celebrations at both the branch in San Jose and another that the bank opened recently in San Francisco.

JPMorgan employs 21,000 people in California, where it has opened roughly 300 branches in the past four years, according to the company. It gained a retail presence in the state in 2008 with its takeover of Washington Mutual and the failed lender's roughly 700 branches there.

"In four years, we've gone from not being in California at all to being the second-largest bank in the state," Ryan McInerney, chief executive of consumer banking at JPMorgan, said in a news release. "We now serve 15 million Californians, and we feel like this is home to us."

The openings come nearly a year after JPMorgan said it would scale back plans to expand branches aggressively that the company had detailed in 2011, although the $2.3 trillion-asset bank said it would prioritize filling in office locations in California and Florida as part of a quest to add market share in those states.

In all, JPMorgan has roughly 5,550 branches in 23 states.

The new branches, located at 2436 Almaden Road in San Jose and 3301 Geary Blvd. in San Francisco, feature self-service banking kiosks and the ability to issue debit cards instantly, JPMorgan said.