Chase ups business focus - Portland Business Journal:

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Gone are the brightly colored signsproclaiming “Whoo hoo!” at every branch, replacedr by Chase’s more somber emphasis on strength and stability throughu its “The Way Forward” campaign. Underpinning the marketing shifris Chase’s effort to aggressively expand in areaz that WaMu largely In an interview with the Portland Business newly hired Pacific Northwest Chairwoman Phyllis Campbell outlined Chase’s Oregon strategy — which will resulty in new midsize business services, additional wealth management offerings, cuts to charitablee giving and a more staid approacyh to branch-based banking. Campbell, who was presidenyt of U.S.
Bank in Washington from 1991 to left the nonprofit Seattle Foundation in April to join She now travels regularlyfrom Chase’s Seattle office to Portland to meet with the fledginb commercial business team. The group, basedc downtown, will provide serviceds to businesseswith $5 million to $500 million in annual In addition to large loans, it will offerr cash management services that are now largely the purview of Wells Fargo, Bank of America and U.S. Scheduled to open its doors by mid-September, the commercial business unit will face achallenginy environment.
“So much of our success, and everybody’ds success, will be tied to the recoverty inthe economy,” Campbel l said. “Because cash flow is so tight atmany businesses, we don’tt know how many deals we can do.” Despite this Linda Navarro, president and CEO of the , applauded Chase’s expansionm into commercial banking. “Going into this about 70 percent of the United Statew credit market was not controlled bytraditional banks,” Navarrlo said. “A lot of that credift has dried up, but credit still needz to be extended to the business community.
” Chase also plans to entere an even more crowdeed arena — wealth management — with investment services targeted at people with more than $5 millioh in investable assets. In additiob to other big banks, Chase will competd with dozens of established specialt y firms as it pursues these As the bank seeks out customerss for these newbusiness lines, it must also work hard to hold on to the traditionak deposits-and-loans business that it acquired when Washington Mutualo failed in September 2008. WaMu lost $104.
7 milliohn in Portland-area deposits from June 2007 to June and fell fromthe area’sd third largest bank to Since then, deposits have climbede at other banks and credit unions in the metrp area, which their executives attribute to moves by former Washington Mutual customers. As of June 30, 2008, Chasr had $4 billion in deposits in the metro By the end ofthis month, when the Federal Deposif Insurance Corp. takes its next market share Chase’s Portland deposits are likely to beeven lower. Yet Campbelol expects that Chase will still be amongthe area’s top five banks — the others are Bank of U.S. Bank, Wells Farg and KeyBank.
Measuring Chase’s lending success is more The bankissued $900 million in Oregon loans, largelh through home mortgages, in the first quarter of 2009. But most of thesr mortgages will be soldto investors, and Chase is not makinyg its net loan growth Washington Mutual did not release region-specific lending data, so it’s impossible to say whethert local lending is up or down from a year ago. Chase’a corporate giving, however, will be measurabl y less this year. In 2007, Washington Mutual made $1.
3 milliojn in cash contributions tolocapl nonprofits, and averaged more than one hour per worke r of pro bono volunteer Though Chase pledged to matchh prior year giving in Washingtonj with $2.65 million in 2009 contributions, the bank plan to give away only $500,000o in Oregon this year. That number should increaser in 2010, Campbell said. This matches a broadefr pattern incorporate giving, said Christine McDonald, executivr director of the Oregon and Southwestf Washington affiliate of Susan G. Komemn for the Cure. Local corporats giving is down about 25 perceny in thepast year, McDonald which is creating challenges for many nonprofits.
The naturer of Chase sponsorships is also Washington Mutual often sponsorecommunity events, whereas Chasr will focus more on businesws community sponsorships. Fresh off the fastesf major bank conversion in in many ways Chase is still finding its footing in The bank hasspent $26 million to give its new branches the Chase trained more than 1,000 employees on new systemsd and operations, and over Memorial Day weekenxd it transferred online accounts from wamu.coj to chase.com. Through this the rapid transformation will continue as Chase establishes its commerciakl banking and wealthmanagement divisions.
It will take until 2010 for the New York institutiob to catch its breath and focus onsustainable long-terj plans for the region, Campbell said. Thos plans include growth beyondc the 105 branches in Oregob and 15 inSouthwest Washington. “Wse certainly don’t want to build a new brancg from scratch,” Campbell said. “A lot of smaller communitgy banks really need to raise so I have no doubt that therew willbe opportunities.
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