Chase Bank Hires 200 in San Antonio – Analyst Blog

According to a report from the San Antonio Business Journal, Chase Bank, the principal banking subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), recruited 200 employees in San Antonio at a job fair on Tuesday.

 

At the job fair, Chase appointed employees to the departments of claims, collections and other customer-support for the Chase Operations Center located at 20855 Stone Oak Parkway.

 

The new recruitments have increased the number of employees at its retail operations center to about 2,300.

 

In June, Chase Bank recruited 300 employees by hosting a similar job fair in Houston.

 

These recruitments follow JPMorgan Chase’s plan to hire 275 home mortgage lenders for its Texas branches in order to build strong relationships with its consumers to grab the opportunities in the wake of the housing market recovery.

 

The new recruitments are expected to increase JPMorgan Chase’s compensation expenses to some extent in the upcoming quarters. As a result, there will be a slight pressure on its bottom line. However, renewing its weight on mortgage lending and other emerging business activities by recruiting specialists will position it well to make most of the opportunities thrown up by the market recovery. 

 

During 2009, JPMorgan Chase reviewed its residential real estate portfolio to identify homeowners who need assistance the most. Consequently, it started opening new regional counseling centers and hiring additional loan counselors.

 

Following its acquisition of Bear Stearns in May 2008 and Washington Mutual in September 2008, JPMorgan Chase had slashed about 10% of its global investment banking staff in 2008 in anticipation of a challenging 2009. However, the initiation of recruitments indicates that the worst of the crisis is now behind the company. 

 

JPMorgan Chase currently retains its Zacks #3 Rank (short-term ‘Hold’ rating), implying that the stock is expected to perform in line with the broader U.S. equity market in the near term. While we anticipate continued synergies from the company’s diversified operations and strong capital position, a pressured credit quality and reduced levels of client activity will drag future earnings.

 

However, we are impressed to see some improvement in credit quality in the last three quarters. Therefore, we maintain our long-term Neutral recommendation on the stock.