WaMu branches to close

JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to close about 300 WaMu bank branches nationwide, including 57 in the Chicago area, by March.

Some of the 57 area branches will be in the suburbs, but JPMorganChase spokesman Tom Kelly declined to specify the towns on Monday.

"We've sent letters on Jan. 8 and 9 and again on Jan. 15 and 16 to tell our customers about the consolidation," Kelly said. "We wanted them to know about it first. We believe this will be an easy transition."

Washington Mutual, better known as WaMu, worked furiously to open about 180 branches in 2003 to 2004, but then closed about 60 of them over the last two years. WaMu then became the largest U.S. bank to fail and was scooped up by JPMorgan Chase last September.

The current consolidation will merge Chase and WaMu branches that likely are across the street or down the block from each other. Customers should continue using their WaMu checks and debit/ATM card and their same account numbers, even if their branch is consolidating into a nearby Chase branch.

By Jan. 27, customers could learn whether a WaMu branch is affected by going to www.wamu.com, clicking on "locations" and entering their WaMu branch location.

Few jobs will be eliminated because many of the transferred positions will work in understaffed Chase branches, Kelly said. He could not provide a number of positions that could be eliminated after the transition.

By this summer, the computer systems also will be consolidated and later the Chase brand name will be used on a total of 384 branches, Kelly said.

During such economic turmoil, more bank consolidations are likely, said Tom Hough, chairman-elect of the Illinois Bankers Association.

"I'm afraid there will be more of these consolidations as the stronger banks take over weaker institutions," Hough said. "That's what's happened here with WaMu. Here you had two large companies that often had bank branches located near each other. There likely will be a loss of jobs and customer dislocation when this happens."