Eighty Percent Of Washington Mutual Chicago Branches Could Close: Report

"J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. is likely to shut down all but 15% to 20% of Washington Mutual Inc.'s Chicago-area branches, according to the real estate broker who brought the Seattle-based bank into the market in the first place," Crain's Chicago Business reports.

"WaMu's local presence doesn't hold much allure for J. P. Morgan, already the biggest bank in Chicago with 340 branches and 14,000 employees. [...] In its rapid-fire Chicago market entry, WaMu built many branches in less-than-optimal locations like strip malls. Its deposit growth has been slow, with just $1.37 billion in deposits as of June 30, 2007, the most recent data available from the FDIC. That accounted for a deposit marketshare of 0.5%.

"J. P. Morgan, on the other hand, has the metro area's largest marketshare. Its $39 billion in deposits, as of June 30, 2007, gave it 14.5% of Chicago's market."

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