JP Morgan mulls acquisitions in retail banking.

Financial News, November, 2002

JP Morgan Chase signalled its growing interest in retail banking Thursday, telling Wall Street analysts that it might make acquisitions to increase the size of its branch network.JP Morgan has made no secret of its desire to increase its retail revenues but has confined its acquisitions so far to national business such as in mortgages and credit cards.

However, in an appearance before the BancAnalysts of Boston fall conference, Don Layton, a vice-chairman, said JP Morgan would consider buying banks to add branches. He said the company's ambitions at this point were limited to the areas in which it currently operated branches - the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Texas.