In an era defined by mobile apps, contactless payments, and digital-first financial services, the country’s largest banks are making a striking counter-move: they are aggressively opening physical branches at a pace not seen in years. JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in the United States by assets, announced on February 18, 2026 that it plans to open 160 new branches during the year — part of a sweeping, multibillion-dollar commitment to place a Chase branch within reach of 75 percent of the American population. The announcement is far from isolated. Bank of America, Truist, Wells Fargo, and PNC Financial are all pursuing parallel strategies, collectively signaling that in-person banking is far from dead. It is being reinvented.
The 2026 expansion covers states including Kansas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. It forms part of a pledge JPMorgan made in February 2024 to open more than 500 new branches and renovate approximately 1,700 existing locations by the end of 2027. Jennifer Roberts, chief executive of Chase Consumer Banking, told the Financial Times that building branches and entering markets is a critical component of reaching the bank’s target of holding 15 percent of the country’s retail deposits. The bank’s new branches are expected to reach profitability within four years, though Roberts noted they are hitting that milestone months ahead of schedule, driven by strong growth in deposits, card customers, and wealth management clients.
JPMorgan’s Branch Expansion: Scale, Strategy, and Speed
The scale of JPMorgan’s branch-building campaign is without precedent among its American peers. In July 2025, the bank marked the opening of its 1,000th new branch since embarking on an expansion drive in 2018, a ceremony held in Charlotte, North Carolina, where chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon attended in person. At that milestone, JPMorgan had roughly 5,000 branches — more than any other American bank, according to Federal Reserve data. By the time the full 2027 plan is complete, Chase will have added more than 1,100 branches in total, renovated 4,300 locations, entered 80 new markets, and hired more than 10,500 additional employees for its consumer banking team.
When JPMorgan began this expansion in 2018, the bank had branches in only 23 U.S. states. By 2021, it had reached all 48 contiguous states, making it the only major bank with a presence across the entire continental United States. The strategy is data-driven. Chase employs a dedicated team that analyzes population growth, household affluence, traffic patterns, and proximity to anchor businesses. According to Tom Horne, head of consumer branch banking at Chase, location selection is a “deeply analytical process,” with high-traffic intersections near popular retail destinations consistently outperforming others in deposit growth.
The bank is also expanding upmarket with a distinct branch format. In May 2025, JPMorgan opened 14 new J.P. Morgan Financial Centers in California, Florida, Massachusetts, and New York — locations acquired through the 2023 takeover of First Republic Bank. These centers occupy some of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the country, including Napa, Palm Beach, and Wellesley Hills. They are intentionally designed to feel different from a standard Chase branch: warm wood finishes, earth-tone color palettes, living-room-style seating, concierge desks, private meeting rooms, complimentary refreshments, and the conspicuous absence of a traditional teller line.
These Financial Centers anchor JPMorgan’s new J.P. Morgan Private Client service tier, which requires clients to hold at least $750,000 in qualifying deposits and investments, with the bank targeting those with roughly $2 million to $3 million in balances. The pitch is straightforward: instead of being passed between multiple employees, a client is assigned to a single dedicated banker who owns every issue end-to-end. By September 2025, the Private Client offering had expanded to 53 Chase branches across New York, Connecticut, Florida, and Texas — nearly tripling its previous footprint. The bank plans to nearly double its Financial Center count again by the end of 2026, with 31 locations expected to be operational.
The motivation is partly competitive. While JPMorgan leads the country in deposit market share and branch count, it holds only about 10 percent of the investing dollars belonging to the approximately 19 million affluent households that already use the bank for checking or credit cards. Peers like Morgan Stanley and Bank of America hold significantly larger shares of the wealth management market. The branch expansion — particularly the upscale Financial Center format — is a direct bid to close that gap without requiring customers to switch banks entirely.
Bank of America: 165 Branches Across 63 Markets by 2026
JPMorgan is not acting alone. Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, has been on its own expansion trajectory since 2016, when it began what became a $5 billion investment in new and renovated locations. The bank opened 471 new branches between 2016 and 2025, and in early 2026 confirmed it is on track to open more than 165 new financial centers across 63 markets by year-end — including roughly 40 in 2025 and 70 more scheduled for 2026. The effort includes entries into entirely new markets: Louisville, Kentucky received its first Bank of America financial center in early 2025, with four additional Kentucky locations to follow. Boise, Idaho, Alabama, Louisiana, and Wisconsin are also on the expansion list.
Bank of America’s branch strategy reflects a deliberate trade-off: the bank has simultaneously been closing older, low-traffic branches — roughly two closures for every one new opening — while investing heavily in a smaller number of high-quality, advisory-focused locations. Its flagship branch at Two Bryant Park in Manhattan, opened in 2025, illustrates the model: teller stations are tucked away, an ATM lobby sits near the entrance, and the floor plan prioritizes open seating for informal consultations and private offices for more sensitive financial conversations. The bank employs a growing corps of relationship bankers who circulate the lobby rather than sitting behind desks.
Aron Levine, president of preferred banking at Bank of America, has articulated the underlying philosophy clearly: most clients use digital tools for day-to-day transactions, but they visit physical centers when they need to discuss complex financial matters — mortgages, investments, business planning, retirement. The branches are designed around those higher-stakes conversations, not routine deposits.
Truist, Wells Fargo, and PNC: Regional Giants Join the Push
The in-person banking revival extends well beyond the two largest institutions. Truist Financial, one of the largest regional banks in the United States, announced in August 2024 that it would open 100 new branches and renovate 300 more across major American cities including Philadelphia, Dallas, Atlanta, Austin, Miami, and Washington. The expansion specifically targets communities with growing populations of affluent customers, reflecting the same wealth management logic driving JPMorgan’s Financial Center model.
Wells Fargo, which holds the second-largest branch network in the country with approximately 4,349 locations as of early 2026, is focused on a combination of new openings and comprehensive modernization of its existing footprint. The bank was constrained for years by a regulatory consent order stemming from its 2016 fake accounts scandal, which restricted its growth. With that order lifted, Wells Fargo has accelerated plans to open new branches, particularly in markets where its presence has lagged competitors. The bank’s modernization strategy emphasizes redesigning branches into what the industry is calling “experience centers” — spaces oriented toward financial advice, community engagement, and relationship-building rather than transaction processing.
PNC Financial Services Group has announced plans to open more than 300 new or renovated branches by 2030, targeting retail deposits across its mid-Atlantic and Midwestern strongholds. TD Bank, meanwhile, has been opening new branches in New York and Boston, and BMO is targeting growth in California. The breadth of activity across institutions of different sizes and geographic footprints suggests this is not a trend confined to a single bank or market segment — it is a structural shift in how the industry is approaching physical distribution.
Why Banks Are Investing in Branches Now
The simultaneous expansion by so many major lenders demands an explanation, particularly given the long-running narrative that digital banking would eventually render physical branches obsolete. Several forces are converging to make branches strategically valuable again in 2025 and 2026.
The deposit competition is intensifying. Federal regulations generally prohibit banks that already hold more than 10 percent of the nation’s deposits from acquiring other banks. For institutions approaching that ceiling, organic deposit growth through branch expansion is one of the few remaining paths to scale. A new branch on a busy street corner functions as persistent brand advertising — a physical marker that builds awareness and trust in ways that digital ads struggle to replicate. Jaime Peters, a finance professor at Maryville University, has noted that the signage alone drives customers through the door who otherwise might not have known a particular bank was in their market.
Small business demand for in-person relationships remains durable. Business owners who need quick decisions on payroll, credit lines, or vendor payments consistently prefer having a named banker they can call. That relationship banking dynamic has proven resilient even as personal banking has migrated almost entirely online.
Consumer behavior data supports the investment. Despite a 52 percent decline in teller transactions at Chase since 2014, nearly one million customers still walk into Chase branches every day. Research published by PYMNTS Intelligence found that 46 percent of Generation Z consumers say they prefer in-person interactions when seeking financial advice — a finding that challenges assumptions about younger customers being exclusively digital-first. Industry projections suggest that even by 2026, approximately 39 percent of banking services will remain human-assisted.
The pandemic migration reshuffled geographic demand. Population movements during and after COVID-19 created significant new concentrations of households in Sun Belt cities, suburban metros, and secondary markets that were underserved by existing branch networks. Banks that built branches in Charlotte, Austin, Miami, and similar high-growth corridors in the early 2020s have reported faster-than-expected ramp-ups in deposits and customer acquisition, validating the location strategy and encouraging further investment.
Wealth management is the high-margin prize. Retail banking margins on basic deposits are thin. But customers who consolidate their investments with their primary bank generate significantly higher revenue. JPMorgan’s Private Client initiative, Bank of America’s advisor-staffed centers, and Truist’s expansion into wealthy ZIP codes all reflect the same calculus: the branch is most valuable not as a place to cash a check, but as a venue to deepen a financial relationship over time. Roberts has described JPMorgan’s goal as delivering a service experience comparable to a high-end hotel — concierge-level, personal, and proactive.
The UK Contrast: A Tale of Two Banking Markets
The American branch expansion is unfolding against a starkly different backdrop in the United Kingdom, where banks have been systematically closing physical locations for years. High street branches operated by Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Lloyds, and others have shuttered at an accelerating pace, driven by the same digital adoption trends affecting U.S. banks — but without the same countervailing push to reinvest in physical presence. The result has been a growing number of communities, particularly in rural and lower-income areas, that lack access to any in-person banking service.
The contrast highlights how divergent strategies can emerge from similar underlying pressures. In the United States, regulatory constraints on deposit concentration, intense competition for wealth management clients, and demographic shifts in high-growth metros have created a business case for branch investment that appears to outweigh the cost savings from closure. In the United Kingdom, the regulatory environment and market structure have produced the opposite outcome, accelerating the retreat from physical banking and intensifying debates about financial inclusion.
Challenges and Limitations of the Branch Comeback
The in-person banking revival, while real, is not without its complications. Even as major banks open new locations, the industry-wide net count of U.S. bank branches continues to decline. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recorded more than 300 proposed branch closures in just the first three months of 2025. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s data shows that between 2019 and 2023, total U.S. bank branches fell by 5.6 percent, and the number of Americans living in banking deserts — communities with no convenient access to in-person financial services — rose by 760,000 to approximately 12.3 million.
The banks opening new branches are, on the whole, targeting affluent suburban and urban markets rather than low-income rural areas, which means the expansion may do little to address the banking desert problem. JPMorgan has pointed out that 27 percent of its new Chase branches are located in low-to-moderate income communities and operates 19 dedicated Community Centers as part of a 300-location community-inspired network. But critics note that the bulk of investment — particularly the Financial Centers aimed at clients with $750,000 or more in assets — is flowing toward the wealthy, not toward underserved populations.
There is also a staffing dimension to the expansion. Opening 160 branches in a single year requires hiring thousands of qualified employees: relationship bankers, wealth advisors, branch managers, and support staff. JPMorgan’s 2024–2027 plan projected the need to add more than 10,500 employees to its consumer banking team. In a competitive labor market, sourcing and retaining that talent at scale presents an operational challenge that financial projections alone cannot capture.
Conclusion
JPMorgan’s plan to open 160 branches in 2026 is the most visible expression of a broader rethinking underway across American banking. The branch is not going away — it is evolving from a transaction window into a relationship venue, a wealth management hub, and a physical embodiment of brand trust. For JPMorgan, the ambition is clear: 500 new branches by 2027, 15 percent of U.S. retail deposits, and a meaningful share of the $2 trillion-plus in investment assets held by affluent households that already carry a Chase card in their wallet. For Bank of America, Truist, Wells Fargo, and PNC, the logic is similar, even if the execution differs. The digital revolution in banking is real and irreversible — but it has not eliminated the human need to sit across a desk from someone and talk about money. The banks betting on in-person banking understand that. And they are putting billions of dollars behind the conviction.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many new branches is JPMorgan opening in 2026?
JPMorgan Chase plans to open 160 new branches in 2026, covering states including Kansas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. The openings are part of the bank’s broader commitment to open more than 500 new branches by the end of 2027.
What is JPMorgan’s total branch count?
As of early 2026, JPMorgan Chase operates approximately 5,000 to 5,110 branches across all 48 contiguous U.S. states, making it the largest branch network of any American bank according to Federal Reserve and Statista data.
What is J.P. Morgan Private Client?
J.P. Morgan Private Client is a premium banking and wealth management service requiring a minimum of $750,000 in qualifying deposits and investment balances. Clients are assigned a dedicated senior banker and have access to a concierge support team, exclusive products, and specialized J.P. Morgan Financial Centers designed for affluent customers.
Is Bank of America also expanding its branches?
Yes. Bank of America is on track to open more than 165 new financial centers across 63 markets by the end of 2026, including approximately 40 in 2025 and 70 more in 2026, as part of an ongoing $5 billion investment in its branch network that began in 2016.
Why are banks opening more branches when digital banking is growing?
Banks are expanding branches primarily to compete for deposits, capture wealth management clients, build brand awareness in new markets, and serve small businesses that value in-person relationships. Research shows that large numbers of consumers — including younger generations — still prefer face-to-face interaction for complex financial decisions like investments, mortgages, and business loans.
Which other banks are opening new branches in 2025–2026?
In addition to JPMorgan and Bank of America, Truist has announced plans to open 100 new branches and renovate 300 more, PNC Financial is targeting 300 new or renovated branches by 2030, Wells Fargo is adding new locations alongside network modernization, TD Bank has opened branches in New York and Boston, and BMO is expanding in California.
What states are getting new JPMorgan Chase branches?
The 2026 expansion specifically covers Kansas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina, among others. JPMorgan’s longer-term expansion also targeted underserved markets including Boston, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and the Washington D.C. area.
