JPMorgan Chase to cut 5000 jobs

US banking giant JPMorgan Chase will cut thousands of jobs in a cost-shaving program aimed at saving $5 billion through 2017, a person close to the situation told AFP on Thursday.

The largest US bank will eliminate more than 5,000 jobs by next year, said another source, confirming a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The layoffs will affect all four of the bank's major business units, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The goal is to cut two percent of the workforce, which was 241,145 employees at the end of December. Last year, JPMorgan slashed nearly 8,000 jobs, mainly in the mortgage loan business.

The bank, contacted by AFP, declined to comment.

The job cuts are part of the bank's plan, announced in February, to slash expenses in its corporate and investment banking and consumer and community banking operations.

It aims to reduce annual expenses to $57 billion this year, compared with $58.4 billion in 2014.

About $2 billion of that is to come from  cost-cutting in retail banking, with the bank planning to close 300 of its 5,570 branches by the end of 2016. At the same time, it is boosting investment in online banking and digital technology.

JPMorgan, like other big banks deemed systemically important by US regulators, is paring costs to meet requirements for bigger capital cushions to offset risks to the financial system.

The bank is considering asset sales to raise additional capital funds, one of the sources said Thursday.