LOS ANGELES, California, August 19, 2026 — Adding hundreds of small-business bankers in the Greater Los Angeles and Riverside markets, the hiring spree, unveiled earlier this month, is linked to the bank’s position as a founding partner of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is one of the largest local expansions by the firm in years.
About a 30 Percent Increase in Staff
The new hires mark an almost 30 percent increase in the number of business bankers serving the area. Chase already has 589,000 small-business clients and five million consumer-banking customers in Los Angeles. The bank has more than 330 retail branches, according to local data, and an estimated employee total of better than 6,000.
A second community center location in East Los Angeles opens next month for the firm, marking its 20th branch across the country. Instead, these branches target financial coaching rather than traditional retail banking. The format has been successful at connecting with businesses who have limited access to traditional lending, according to Chase.
Coaching for Impact Grows
JPMorgan Chase also plans to expand its Coaching for Impact program to support another 3,700 entrepreneurs over five years. Across the country, over 900 of those business owners are in Greater Los Angeles and Riverside, as part of over 15,000 nationwide. Chase is also directing more than $1 million in new philanthropic dollars toward procurement preparedness for about 120 small businesses.
The funding builds on over US$15 million the bank has invested in the region since 2020. Officials say they want to hook up small vendors with contracts associated with the Olympics before the Games open. “It was intended to be permanent,” Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said in a visit to the Coliseum this month.
Olympics as a Long-Term Bet
Earlier this year, Chase became a new Global Banking Partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The agreement involves both the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games and the 2030 Winter Games in February in the French Alps. “This is not just a marketing angle,” said Chief Marketing Officer Carla Hassan of its partnership with the Olympics.
Dimon, framing the Olympics as a beginning and not an end point, told reporters: “We want it to go over time”. Chase also has connected sports-anchored investments at Madison Square Garden in New York, and the Chase Center in San Francisco. That pattern continues with the Los Angeles push, which is focused less on arena sponsorships than on lending for small businesses.
A trip to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum provided the bank with a preview of how it plans to market its sponsorship locally. Prior to renovations planned as part of the preparations for the 2028 opening ceremony, Dimon toured the venue with city officials. The bank expansion, executives say, is designed to last long past the six-week Olympic window itself.
City Officials Welcome the Push
For her part, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has positioned the 2028 Games as an opportunity to fund local businesses directly. State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas held a workforce symposium to make sure South LA receives its fair share of Olympic contracts. LA28’s executive director told attendees at that event, “It’s a generational opportunity to lift our communities.”
City officials say the upcoming pipeline of contracts would benefit family-run restaurants and small production shops most. Bass also said, “The City and LA28 are making sure every business gets a piece of the economic pie.” The statement reflects the same framing that JPMorgan itself has employed to justify the magnitude of its investment.
As for the extended outreach program, the complete announcement was published by JPMorgan’s press office on its website. The first physical footprint of the plan will occur next month when the East Los Angeles branch opens. The open question for local business owners is whether the effort has legs after the Games, as Dimon implies it will.
