JPMorgan to merge UK-based private bank with wider European ops: Sky News

REUTERS - JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, is planning to merge its UK-based private banking unit with its wider European wealth operation ahead of the UK's exit from the European Union, Sky News reported on Wednesday.

The merger will lead to the relocation of fewer than 100 of the roughly 1,000 jobs in the private banking unit in Britain, to Europe, Sky reported, citing sources (http://bit.ly/2uwAx85)

A number of alternatives to the merger were also being considered, Sky said.

A JPMorgan spokeswoman declined to comment.

Daniel Pinto, head of investment banking at the Wall Street bank, told Bloomberg in May that it planned to move hundreds of London-based bankers to offices in Dublin, Frankfurt and Luxembourg after Brexit.

CEO Jamie Dimon, however, said in April the bank was not planning to move many jobs out of Britain in the next two years.

(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)