NEWPORT BEACH — JPMorganChase recently hosted a special guest at its newly opened Newport Beach office that combines its Chase banking unit with its wealth management side.
Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of the nation’s largest bank with $5 trillion in assets, visited the office as part of his annual bus tour.
“We still have huge opportunities in California,” Dimon told the Business Journal in an exclusive interview Aug. 7. “I just finished a town hall for almost a thousand people here. We learn a lot when we go on those trips.”
Dimon’s visit is another sign that the banking battles in Orange County are heating up as they fight for market share.
Countywide, the bank is already the largest in Orange County with total deposits of $29.8 billion as of June 30, 2025, 2,000 employees and 91 branches. JPMorganChase’s main business office in Irvine is set to double in size from 675 employees across 20 lines of business to 1,250 in the coming five years.
“Those are the executive bankers that are serving the most business-centric to help build companies in Orange County,” said Ethan Morgan, JPMorgan’s private bank managing director for Orange County and San Diego.
“Under Jamie’s guidance, we are growing dramatically here in Orange County, specifically to be able to help the businesses of Orange County. It’s going to be massive.”

The Banking Collapse Fallouts
The 2023 collapse of First Republic Bank, Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank made available the business they used to handle, as well as talented local bankers.
Citizens Private Bank, a unit of Providence, Rhode Island-based Citizens Bank, in February opened an office in Newport Beach and hired well-known local banker Victor Mena, who worked at Republic Bank for 28 years.
MidFirst Bank, the nation’s largest privately owned family bank with $42 billion in assets, has opened offices in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa with plans to expand. The Oklahoma City-based bank hired two Orange County executives, Joanne Stockdale and Chris Croswell, who are veterans of First Republic.
Flagstar Bank, which is based in New York, is aiming to double its headcount here. WaFd Bank recently announced OC banking veteran Timothy Chelf has joined the Seattle-based bank as its regional president of California. Customers Bank, which has $24 billion in assets and is based in West Reading, Pennsylvania, in December announced its new office in Park Plaza in Irvine.
JPMorganChase acquired First Republic, paying about $10.6 billion to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The acquisition added $92 billion in deposits, $173 billion in loans and $30 billion in securities.
“We struggled to handle it properly a little bit, but a lot of lessons were learned about how we could do a better job serving the community, serving the venture capital community, serving the smaller company community,” Dimon said. “So we’ve actually gotten better at it. And there are real plans to grow each one of those.”
First Republic had deposits of $4.6 billion in Orange County as of June 30, 2022, along with 150 employees.
Dimon said he is concentrating on organic growth rather than acquisitions and said the firm has $50 billion of excess capital to spend.
“It’s hard work, but when you have that organic growth machine working, it’s an unbelievable thing. And you’re not adding different cultures or different systems, all these very complicated things,” he said.
“The opportunity is still enormous in America.”

Major Initiatives
JPMorganChase has unveiled major initiatives in the past 10 months that Dimon wanted to highlight.
In October, it announced a “Security and Resilience Initiative” where it plans to spend $1.5 trillion in the coming decade to invest in industries critical to national economic security.
“This will help finance the things we need for security resiliency such as rare earths, semiconductors, nuclear subs, vendors who do Patriot missiles, cyber-security, AI ­—the things that we do need to do to protect ourselves.
“It’s ignited a lot of interest about how we can go about this, not just with us, with other banks, the government, the United States military.”
Besides financing companies in industries like energy, aerospace and supply chains, JPMorganChase also plans to invest $10 billion in direct equity and venture capital in select companies in these areas.
On Aug. 3, it also unveiled a plan to spend $750 billion in the next decade to improve home ownership opportunities for Americans.
“It’s going to create a million affordable homes,” Dimon said.
JPMorganChase will be expanding its program for regular mortgages and also offer mortgages that will be slightly subsidized with the help of low-income housing credits.
Dimon has conducted bus tours about 16 times, including four in California, where he visits various branches and call centers and talks to Southern California business executives.
The bank also announced plans earlier this month to expand small business support ahead of LA28 (see this page).
During the Aug. 7 tour, his bus rolled into the In-N-Out Burger restaurant at the University Center next to UCI. The branch is near In-N-Out’s headquarters, which is scheduled to be relocated by 2029 to Baldwin Park.
Dimon’s go to meal?
“Animal Style double. Not a lot of french fries, but I had some, and then I had a vanilla shake.”

JPMorganChase Doubles Down on Small Business Support in SoCal

JPMorganChase is expanding its support for small businesses in Southern California as the New York City banking giant prepares for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The company, the official bank of Team USA and LA28, announced Aug. 5 that it plans to to hire more than 100 additional business bankers across Southern California — a nearly 30% increase. It also plans to expand its Coaching for Impact program to graduate more than 3,700 additional entrepreneurs in the region.
JPMorganChase is also providing more than $1 million in new philanthropic funding aimed at helping small businesses gain access to capital, business coaching and contracting opportunities tied to the Summer Olympics.
“We know that many small business owners operate with only a few weeks of cash on hand, making it harder to manage day-to-day expenses while preparing for larger opportunities to grow their businesses around global events,” Stevie Baron, CEO of Chase for Business, said in a statement. “That’s why we’re focused on connecting local entrepreneurs in Southern California to capital and resources that build resilience and help them navigate procurement pathways so more businesses are ready to compete for and deliver on major contracts.”
The bank also plans to open a Community Center Branch in East Los Angeles next month.
—Nancy Luna