Iowa
JPMorganChase & Co., nation’s largest bank, says it is expanding its Iowa footprint
JPMorgan Chase & Co. reacts to stock market dip during Des Moines visit
Hear what Jamie Dimon, head of the world’s largest bank, says about the stock market downturn during a visit to Des Moines.
The nation’s largest bank is expanding its brick-and-mortar presence in Iowa, it announced Monday with an event that brought its high-profile chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, to Des Moines.
JPMorganChase, with more than $3 trillion in assets, is announcing plans to open 25 new branches in Iowa by 2030 and creating about 150 new jobs. Dimon marked the start of the expansion by cutting the ribbon on the latest Iowa branch to open, a newly constructed building at 3101 Ingersoll Ave.
Accompanying Dimon, Jennifer Roberts, CEO of Chase Consumer Banking, said in an interview with the Des Moines Register that the bank’s decision to expand in Iowa is continuation of its announcement, made in 2018, to build 400 new branches and have operations in all states except Alaska and Hawaii,
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Roberts said Chase decides where to build by comparing its share of a market’s deposits to its share of branch locations there.
“So we have a very low single-digit branch share in many of these new states that we went in starting in 2018 and we know we need to increase that to really get the full effect of our investment,” she said. “And so this is really just an ongoing effort from that journey starting in 2018 to continue to expand and get to that optimal size.”
Chase consumer banking head says Iowa attractive because of ‘diversity’
The new branch on Ingersoll is Chase’s sixth to open in the Des Moines metro in the past three years and its plans call for additional branches in Des Moines, Waterloo Cedar Rapids, Sioux City and Ames in the next five years.
Even in a world of increased digital capabilities, Roberts said, customers are still looking for human interaction.
“We really view our branch locations as advice centers in many ways, our ability to really connect with customers of all different needs and our experiences,” she said. “Our experience is that in complex situations people want people and they want to have a human connection and an interaction.
“We know that the majority of our accounts, in particular… with young people get opened in a physical branch, not online, which may be different than what you would expect, because obviously young people do everything online,” Roberts added.
She said one of the attributes Iowa has that is attractive to Chase is its diversity, “Maybe not necessarily what people typically think of diversity, but it’s got a vibrant university community, agriculture and farming, obviously manufacturing and small business is a big part of the economy.”
“In Iowa, and as we really strive to be what we call the bank for all, we want to make sure we’re serving customers at all ends of the affluent spectrum and all types of small businesses, regardless of what industry they’re in in Iowa, I think is a great microcosm of our ability to do that and deliver on that,” she said.
Expansion in Iowa fits Chase’s overall goal, announced in May, of having branches located within accessible drive time of 50% of all U.S. residents, Roberts said.
Community bank chief calls Chase expansion ‘a good sign for Iowa’
Iowa already is a highly competitive when it comes to banking, with 240 state-chartered banks and roughly 1,400 bank offices scattered around the state, said John Sorensen, president and CEO of the Iowa Bankers Association.
Sorensen said Iowa’s large number of banks — it ranks in the top four nationally and near the top on a per-capita basis — is due to its agricultural heritage.
“We have a number of community institutions here, especially in rural Iowa, serving those rural communities very well. My sense with Chase is they’re going to be looking at markets that make sense for them,” he said, adding that metro markets have become highly competitive in Iowa and are where Chase likely will seek to establish its niche.
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“It requires any financial institution that enters the market to understand that market well, to understand where they can fit and you know try and try and provide a better mousetrap,” Sorensen said.
Despite the competition, Greg Post, president and CEO of Spencer-based Northwest Bank, said sees Chase’s increased presence in Iowa as a good thing.
“I’m thrilled they (Chase) see Iowa as a place they can continue to grow and prosper. I think that’s a good sign for Iowa and it’s a good sign for Iowa community banks that the Midwest has been extremely strong over the last decade, even through the COVID years,” Post said.
He said huge banks like Chase have brought important technology to the industry, but community banks like his will continue to thrive in Iowa.
“The larger mega banks, they have different business models obviously and are trying to play up to their investors,” he said. “I think the challenge facing the banking industry today is not to bump off or move out locally based competition to benefit mega banks, but how do we maintain a diverse and decentralized system to ensure continued access to the financial service for all Iowans and people across the country?”
Dimon, informed of Post’s welcoming attitude, said banks like Northwest can also be Chase customers, with the larger bank providing them loans and helping them with services tailored to customers who have foreign markets and clients.
“We can bank them (customers) outside this country. We’ve got special digital services that secure their payments etcetera and we can move money in 120 different currencies.. We can do a lot of things other people can’t do. If you look at the financial ecosystem, you know, we bank a company like Boeing in 30 countries. You can’t be a small bank and do that,” Dimon said.
Offiering the same kind of international reach, Chase currently serves about 20,000 small businesses in Iowa and Dimon thinks the number will grow to 40,000 to 50,000.
“When we come here, we can also help them sell their product in India and Asia and Mexico,” he said. “We are everywhere. So they say to us they want to learn about what they can do in Brazil, we teach them. We can open a bank account in Brazil for them and help them sell into Brazil.”
Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at kbaskins@registermedia.com.
Here are the candidates for High School on SI’s Iowa high school athlete of the week for April 13-18. Read through the nominees and cast your vote.
Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. PT on Sunday, April 26. The winner will be announced in the following week’s poll. Here are this week’s nominees:
Taylor Roose, Pella boys track and field
Roose competed in three events at the Norwalk Invitational, winning all three in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and long jump.
Daxon Kiesau, Urbandale boys track and field
Kiesau swept the throwing events at the Norwalk Invitational, taking first place in the shot put and the discus.
Alex Burger, Southeast Valley boys track and field
Competing at home, Burger dominated, earning four gold medals. He won the 400-meter hurdles and the long jump while running on the winning 4×200-meter relay and shuttle hurdle relay.
Kolby Hodnefield, Clear Lake boys track and field
Hodenfield, a defending state champion, broke the meet, venue and school record in the 200 and the 400 at the Clear Lake Invitational. He added victories as part of the 4×100 and 4×400 relays. Both relays also set meet records.
Easton Moon, North Polk boys tennis
Moon has started off his senior season on the courts unbeaten, winning all four matches while dropping just one game in 44 played.
Ava Lohrbach, Gilbert girls golf
One of the top golfers in the state, Lohrbach has had a hot start, firing a 35 in her nine-hole debut and a 72 for her 18-hole opener.
Nathan Manske, Algona boys golf
An elite quarterback and basketball player, Manske is showing his golfing skills this spring, coming out with a state-low 30 in a nine-hole event.
Ella Hein, Tipton girls track and field
Hein set school records in the 400-meter run and long jump at the Tiger/Tigerette Relays while also locking in the Blue Standard and qualifying for the Drake Relays. She won the long jump (18-6) and was second in the 400.
Maeve Bowen-Burt, Iowa City High girls track and field
The sophomore helped the Little Hawks land three Drake Relays events on the last night of qualifying, advancing in the 400 hurdles, along with the sprint medley and 4×400 relays.
About Our Athlete of the Week Voting
High School on SI voting polls are meant to be a fun, lighthearted way for fans to show support for their favorite athletes and teams. Our goal is to celebrate all of the players featured, regardless of the vote totals. Sometimes one athlete will receive a very large number of votes — even thousands — and that’s okay! The polls are open to everyone and are simply a way to build excitement and community around high school sports. Unless we specifically announce otherwise, there are no prizes or official awards for winning. The real purpose is to highlight the great performances of every athlete included in the poll.
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The late boxing great George Foreman lies buried in a cemetery in the northwestern corner of Iowa – a place he has no connection to outside of a lone visit to the region nearly 40 years ago.
Foreman died March 21, 2025, at the age of 76 in Houston and was buried in Logan Park Cemetery at Sioux City, Iowa, a month later, city officials confirmed. Foreman’s family returned Thursday to his burial site, holding a news conference with Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott to reveal Foreman’s burial place, marked by a large monument that bears an image of him as a teen following his Olympic gold medal boxing win.
The family explained in a statement released by Sioux City officials that he had visited the Iowa city in 1988, and often recalled the sense of peace he experienced there.
After traveling to the city on April 17 last year to bury Foreman, his family said they immediately understood the region’s appeal.
“Our father lived a life of purpose, faith and gratitude,” the family said in a statement released by Sioux City officials. “To see him laid to rest in a place that brought him peace means everything to us.”
Scott joined the family at Foreman’s monument that lies just a few miles north of the Missouri River in an upper Midwest city of nearly 87,000 people. The cemetery overlooks the scenic Loess Hills, created by windblown silt deposits that reach up to 200 feet high (about 61 meters) and line the river along the Iowa border for 200 miles (322 kilometers).
“Their story is a reminder of how one place can stay with someone for a lifetime,” Scott said.
A native Texan, Foreman rose to fame when he made the 1968 U.S. Olympic boxing team, winning gold in Mexico City. He became the heavyweight champion of the world in 1973 by defeating the great Joe Frazier, only to lose the title a year later to Muhammad Ali in the famous “Rumble in the Jungle.”
A full 20 years later in 1994, Foreman became the oldest man to win the heavyweight championship at 45, defeating Michael Moorer in an epic upset.
Foreman retired in 1997 with a 76-5 career record.
He then moved on to the next chapter in his life as a businessman, pitchman and occasional actor, becoming known to a new generation as the face of the George Foreman Grill. The simple cooking machine sold more than 100 million units and brought him more wealth than boxing.
A biographical movie based on Foreman’s life was released in 2023.
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) — About 50 Iowans braved the threat of severe storms to hear from Republican candidate for governor Zach Lahn at his town hall in Dubuque Friday night.
Lahn, a farmer and businessman, said his campaign is about solving the long-term systemic issues facing Iowans.
One priority is addressing what Lahn calls a cancer crisis in Iowa, as the state has the second-highest cancer rate in the country. Solving the crisis means ensuring Iowans have access to clean, nitrate-free drinking water, working with farmers to reduce agricultural runoff.
“Iowans are just ready for something that they should be able to count on, like clean drinking water,” Lahn said. “We have ways to clean up the drinking water in Iowa that isn’t on the backs of farmers, but is working alongside with them because they’re drinking the water too, and they want to do what’s right.”
Lahn also wants to stop Iowa’s “brain drain,” as more of Iowa’s college graduates left the state for opportunities elsewhere.
“Don’t leave! Give me some time! I’m going to fight to keep you here,” Lahn said. “I was one of these kids. I thought I had to leave the state to find something better. We have to prioritize Iowa’s incentive dollars to make sure they’re going to grow Iowa businesses that are going to be here for the long haul, so our kids have places to work.”
Running a distinct campaign feels challenging this election, as Lahn is one of five GOP candidates who want to be Iowa’s next governor, facing U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, former Department of Administrative Services Director Adam Steen, state Rep. Eddie Andrews and former state Rep. Brad Sherman.
Iowa Auditor Rob Sand is the only Democrat running for the state’s top office.
Lahn said he stands out by promising Iowa will be for Iowans, pledging to ban the use of eminent domain for private gain and tax out-of-state landowners and data centers at higher rates to lower property taxes.
“It always goes back to follow the money, so when it comes to not being a weak-kneed Republican today, I believe the paramount piece of that is answering only to the citizens of Iowa, not to special interests to pad their bottom line, but what’s best for the people of Iowa,” Lahn said.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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