Chase has announced that they will be closing 299 branches, 57 of them in the Chicago-area alone. The Daily Herald says that most of the branches are across the street or down the block from existing Chase branches and consolidation is necessary. The remaining WaMu branches will be converted to the Chase brand.

From the Daily Herald:

Washington Mutual, better known as WaMu, worked furiously to open about 180 branches in 2003 to 2004, but then closed about 60 of them over the last two years. WaMu then became the largest U.S. bank to fail and was scooped up by JPMorgan Chase last September.

The current consolidation will merge Chase and WaMu branches that likely are across the street or down the block from each other. Customers should continue using their WaMu checks and debit/ATM card and their same account numbers, even if their branch is consolidating into a nearby Chase branch.

By Jan. 27, customers could learn whether a WaMu branch is affected by going to http://www.wamu.com, clicking on “locations” and entering their WaMu branch location.

WaMu branches to close [Daily Herald]
(Photo:knightraven)

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