JPMorgan's Contrarian Bet on Bank Branches

Charlsey Smedley, a retired schoolteacher in Orlando, started moving her checking account last month to JPMorgan Chase (JPM) from Bank of America (BAC), where she has been a customer for more than 35 years. "The service at Bank of America was O.K., but they just kept adding more and more fees," Smedley, 74, says outside the sleek, gray JPMorgan branch that opened last July on Town Center Boulevard. It's one of 18 JPMorgan outlets in Orlando and a five-minute walk from where Smedley used to bank. The $150 JPMorgan offered to put in her account as a promotional enticement helped seal the deal, she says.

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's chief executive officer, had people like Smedley in mind when he announced plans in February to open as many as 2,000 branches, more than half of them in Florida and California, expanding the New York-based bank's network by almost 40 percent. He's targeting states dominated by Bank of America, the biggest U.S. bank by deposits, and Wells Fargo (WFC).