EXCLUSIVE— Mobile banking customers continue to flock to JPMorgan Chase, a growth attributed to the bank’s focus on customer loyalty, Marianne Lake, chief financial officer for the bank, said today.
Digital customers are “more loyal, they spend more money, make higher deposits and investments,” Lake said this morning during the bank’s Q1’18 earnings call, where Chase reported 30.9 million mobile active users.
The bank grew its customers from 30.1 million MAUs last quarter, a 3% change, with year-over-year growth hovering at about 14%. This is due to the fact that the bank is “making it more compelling for people to digitally move their money,” Lake said today.
The growth also has “a little to do with adding new features,” Lake said, highlighting the digital account opening feature it recently launched.
Lake did not mention P2P services, though Chase is one of the partner banks for Early Warning’s Zelle service: Chase did not mention user statistics or transaction volume for that service.
Though the bank is seeking to expand its digital ecosystem, including creating standalone mobile banking apps like Finn.ai (the bank did not report user figures for this app during its earnings call), Chase is still seeking to provide a physical bank experience at the same level.
Chase “also wants [our mobile customers] to use our branches,” Lake said during the call, a remark that comes after multiple banks, including Chase, announced plans to add more physical branches and/or create higher-tech versions of these physical locations.
When it comes to mobile, the bank’s focus on customer loyalty has put it on top for mobile active users, with competitor mobile apps by banks such as Wells Fargo and Citigroup (who also reported first quarter earnings today) trailing behind by tens of millions of customers.
The bank expects to keep up that structured growth — “we hope for it,” said Lake on today’s call—in the coming quarters. Chase currently manages approximately $2.7 trillion in assets.






