Business

JPMorgan to retain 24,000 jobs at WaMu

NEW YORK: Global financial services provider JPMorgan Chase, which had acquired the troubled Washington Mutual (WaMu), expects to retain about 24,000 employees of the savings and loan association, a media report said. “The company would retain the 22,000 employees who work at Washington Mutual branches and 2,000 workers in the mortgage and wealth management divisions in California,” online edition of U.S. magazine Forbes quoted JPMorgan Chase spokesman Tom Kelly as saying.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, WaMu had about 43,000 employees as of June. While, JPMorgan and WaMu together have about 5,400 branches, the company said it planned to close about 10 per cent. The report stated up to 19,000 employees of Washington Mutual are facing layoffs as JPMorgan Chase turned up the synergy on its recent acquisition.

About 1,600 employees, who work in the back-offices of the California branches have already been informed that their jobs would be cut by March, it added. Meanwhile, bulk of the job-cuts would be at the Washington Mutual headquarters in Seattle due to the overlap in operations with the current employees at JPMorgan. The report further stated that the company had not yet determined the total number to be cut in other States, but it is planning to inform all former WaMu employees of their job status by Monday. — PTI

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