By Nupur Anand and Tatiana Bautzer
DETROIT (Reuters) -JPMorgan Chase has invested $2 billion during the past 11 years in Detroit to help reduce unemployment and boost growth, CEO Jamie Dimon said in an interview in the city on Wednesday, and the bank plans to roll out the model in other U.S. cities.
The largest U.S. lender’s investments have included $1.8 billion in commercial loans and credit and $200 million in philanthropy.
“We’ve seen an increase in consumer accounts, small business accounts,” he said, as well as financing large companies based in the city.
JPMorgan plans to add up to 70 employees in Detroit from a current 80 people working in a virtual call center for its consumer and auto businesses, the bank said.
Detroit, once the heart of the U.S. auto industry, filed for bankruptcy in 2013 after decades of population loss, industrial decline and fiscal mismanagement.
Since then, it has shown signs of recovery, with new housing, small business growth and increased investment from the public and private sectors. Several companies, including General Motors, DTE Energy and Rocket have invested locally.
Detroit has served as a testing ground for JPMorgan’s community investment strategy, and it plans to replicate the model in Baltimore, Atlanta and Birmingham to expand its commercial and philanthropic footprint.
“It’s the origin story for how we think about our involvement, engagement and investment in communities,” said Tim Berry, head of corporate responsibility at JPMorgan.
The lender is building a new office in Detroit, scheduled to be completed next year. In October, it opened a $3 billion headquarters in New York, which will serve as a model for the company’s future offices worldwide.
(Reporting by Nupur Anand in New York and Tatiana Bautzer in Detroit, editing by Lananh Nguyen and Rod Nickel)
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