JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) , the second- largest U.S. bank by assets, is hiring about 250 small-business bankers this year to keep pace with a pickup in loan demand and an expanded lending goal.
The bank is bolstering staff to accommodate customers in California and Florida who were added after the firm’s 2008 acquisition of Seattle-based thrift Washington Mutual Inc., said Michael Cleary, head of small-business lending. The unit provides direct loans, lines of credit and credit cards to companies with less than $20 million in revenue.
Cleary hired 450 new bankers in 2010 and added about 100 more so far this year. By December, JPMorgan will have about 40 percent more small-business specialists than the 1,950 who worked for the unit in 2009, excluding support staff, he said. The unit increased its lending commitment to small businesses to $12 billion this year from $10 billion in 2010 as applications and approval rates have climbed, he said.
“There’s some pent-up demand, they want to invest and the quality of the borrower is improving,” Cleary said in an interview yesterday.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dawn Kopecki in New York at dkopecki@bloomberg.com .
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net
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