CHICAGO - Bank One, which last month agreed to be bought by New York-based J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., appears eager to convince Chicagoans that it's still a Chicago bank, even though the bank will be based in New York when the transaction is completed later this year.
According to a Chicago Sun-Times report, Bank One will open 30 new branches this year, replace 550 ATMs and install another 50 ATMs in Walgreens stores and other non-bank locations, spending an estimated $55 million.
The additions will bring Bank One's total number of area branches to 250 by the end of 2004 and the number of ATMs to 1,150 by the end of 2005
Last year, the bank opened 20 new branches, replaced 415 ATMs and added 74 new ATM locations, including 11 at Chicago Transit Authority train stations. The tab was more than $30 million.
Bank One's issued a news release on the expansion, likely to assure nervous customers that their bank isn't going away. The new branches also help make up for seven bank branches Bank One will lose in Dominick's Finer Foods stores. Dominick's parent Safeway earlier this year said it would close a dozen unprofitable Dominick's stores by March 13.
"By making this announcement, it's signaling to the market that they're going to keep Chicago as a market of focus for them," David Long, an analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co., told the Sun-Times.
According to Bank One, all of the new ATMs will feature enlarged touchscreens with full-color graphics, voice prompts for the visually impaired and Web capability that will enable the easy addition of new functions.
