'We're All In': JPMorgan Chase Increases Detroit Investment To $200M

When Detroit was embroiled in an $18-billion bankruptcy, Mayor Mike Duggan received a call from JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM CEO Jamie Dimon — and didn’t believe it was him. 

It was Dimon on the other end of the line, and the phone call was followed by a $150-million investment in the Motor City. Five years later, the nation’s largest bank is increasing its commitment by $50 million, for a total of $200 million by the end of 2022. 

“He doesn’t send a check,” Duggan said of Dimon on Wednesday evening. “He’s here all the time.” 

Chase’s Detroit investment totals $155 million to date, according to the New York-based bank, and has focused on four pillars: jobs and skills training, neighborhood revitalization, small business growth and financial health. 

Dimon: ‘We’re All In’

The additional $50-million targets barriers to opportunity that prevent long-term Detroiters from accessing job training, becoming homeowners and developing small businesses.

“By every economic indicator, there’s a great disparity for the black community,” September Hargrove, the leader of Chase’s Detroit efforts, said Wednesday at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, where the bank announced its commitment. 

Dimon said Chase’s investment in Detroit is being used as a model for capital deployments in communities such as New Orleans, the South Bronx, San Francisco and Los Angeles. 

The bank's Detroit investment is “real, long-term and sustained,” the CEO said. 

"We’re all in."

The Entrepreneurs of Color Fund for minority-owned small businesses in Detroit is one element of Chase’s investment, making loans to startups, established businesses and minority contractors. 

Duggan said that of the 60-70 companies funded by the program, only one has defaulted.  

“They are creating opportunities for Detroiters to rebuild the city,” the mayor said of Chase. 

Breaking Down The $50M 

The Entrepreneurs of Color Fund is one beneficiary of the $50-million commitment made by Chase Wednesday, as part of $12 million dedicated to boosting black entrepreneurs.

Another $20 million targets improved access to homeownership and affordable housing, including a lease-purchase pilot program that helps lower-income Detroit families achieve and sustain homeownership; and the support of affordable, turnkey homes in strategic locations in the form of capital access for community development organizations and minority developers. 

Chase is allocating $10 million to investments in job training and the future of work, with initiatives that target barriers to employment; job training in growing sectors; and job creation tools and resources for entrepreneurs.  

Chase is budgeting $8 million for financial health programs, and they include wages of no less than $16.50 per hour for Chase’s entry-level branch and customer service employees in metro Detroit; increased access to financial counseling; and higher investments in financial coaching and savings incentive programs. 

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JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon speaks at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit on Wednesday, June 26. Photo by Dustin Blitchok.