JPMorgan Chase is close to starting its retail banking business in Germany, with Berlin chosen as the base for the project rather than Frankfurt, reported the Financial Times.
For JPMorgan, Germany is part of a wider effort to build a presence in continental Europe, where retail banking remains divided by national markets and led by domestic institutions.
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The bank introduced its digital brand Chase in the UK in 2021.
Since then, it has gathered more than 3 million customers and £30bn in deposits, supported by rates that required the bank to absorb costs worth hundreds of millions of pounds at the outset.
Jamie Dimon described plans in 2023 to widen that consumer banking business.
Now, three years on, and five years after JPMorgan drew attention to its UK expansion, the bank is expected to launch Chase in Germany within weeks.
The German rollout was delayed by regulatory and technical issues, the report said.
JPMorgan was unable to copy the UK banking system directly and instead had to adjust it to fit European infrastructure such as the Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa), as well as local rules including church tax deductions on interest income.
Management changes also added to the challenge. The executive who had been leading JPMorgan’s international consumer banking expansion, and had overseen the UK launch, left last year to run US data company FactSet.
Daniel Llano Manibardo, the bank’s head of retail banking in Germany, only took up his role in April 2025.
In a statement to FT, Manibardo said: “It was the first time we were making the platform multi-country, multi-currency and multi-language.
“These initial investments are always bigger and take a bit longer than investments required to enter subsequent markets from here.”
The bank’s target is for Chase to rank among the five biggest players in each country it enters, which would mean exceeding 5 million customers in Germany.
Over time, JPMorgan intends to add more services in Germany, following the pattern used in the UK, where Chase provides current accounts, credit cards and investment products.
Other banks are also seeking growth in the market. BBVA started a digital bank in Germany last year, while Crédit Agricole, Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit have each announced expansion plans.
In February , JPMorgan Chase revealed plans to increase its branch network in the US by opening more than 160 locations across over 30 states and refurbishing about 600 existing sites in 2026.
That step is part of a longer-term plan presented earlier in 2024. Under the strategy, the bank aims over three years to open more than 500 branches, upgrade 1,700 locations and hire 3,500 employees.
