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January 10, 2023

Baceline Group is excited to welcome Chase Bank to MLK Plaza in St. Louis! A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to celebrate the bank’s 20th branch grand opening in the Covenant Blu-Grand Center neighborhood!

“Chase opened its 20th branch in the St. Louis area on Wednesday, with a pledge to open 31 by the end of 2024.

The newest branch will make its home in the Covenant Blu-Grand Center neighborhood in the MLK Plaza. Nearly 60 people crammed into the 3,000-square-foot business on Wednesday, where they celebrated the opening and held a ribbon cutting while Cardinal Ritter College Prep cheerleaders chanted, ‘Finance and save! Go to Chase Bank!’

Attendees lauded the new branch as an influx of resources into a traditionally disinvested community.

‘When I see this room here today, I will tell you, this brings to life the reason why we’re doing this,’ Racquel Oden, head of network expansion for Chase, told the crowd. ‘We want to be part of all communities, and we want to be part of communities that have been underbanked and underserved. And the reason why is because you matter, and we’re there, and we got your back.’

For years, Chase, a subsidiary of J.P, Morgan, resisted building in a fragmented St. Louis banking market. But after Chase opened its first branch in Kirkwood in 2019, the number of St. Louis Chase branches has sky-rocketed across the area.

This comes despite many banks closing branches nationwide since the 2020 pandemic — nearly 4,000 branches in 2021 alone — according to Bloomberg. Chase closed 129 branches in January 2022. Locally KMOV reported anecdotal evidence that St. Louisans were struggling to find open banks.

But Oden says Wednesday’s opening marks Chase’s desire to continue expanding in St. Louis — with nearly 10 more branches to come in the next two years. ‘I’m going to promise you here now that we are here for the long haul,’ Oden said.

Source: Riverfront Times