Chase announced a broad initiative to dramatically expand the bank’s relationships with existing affluent customers and attract new customers, and named experienced executive Barry Sommers to lead it.
“We have made this initiative a strategic priority at JPMorgan Chase because we can do far more for the affluent clients who already like doing business with Chase through our extensive branch and ATM networks,” said Charlie Scharf, head of Retail Financial Services. “We will leverage the investment expertise of J.P. Morgan, develop our products, sharpen our marketing and improve our service model to meet the unique needs of affluent customers.”
Sommers will take on the newly created role of CEO of Retail Affluent and Investment Services, reporting to Scharf. He also will be responsible for the 2,700 Financial Advisors that serve Chase customers through more than 5,100 branches across the country.
While 8 percent of Chase’s Retail customers are affluent, their deposits and investments — held at Chase and elsewhere – represent two-thirds of all customers- deposits and investments. Chase’s strategy is to earn more than its current 5 percent share of those assets.
“I am confident that our initiative will help us serve customers better and could increase pretax profits by $500 million to $1 billion annually,” Scharf said. “Barry is a proven leader with excellent experience.” Sommers moves over from CEO of J.P. Morgan Securities, formerly known as Bear Stearns Private Client Services. He also served in senior asset management roles at Bear Stearns and was in Asset Management sales to high-net-worth individuals and institutions at Goldman Sachs.
D.C.