Bank One to cut 300 jobs

INDIANAPOLIS -- Bank One Corp. will cut nearly 300 jobs in Indiana and Ohio as a result of its pending merger with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., a company spokesman said.\nThe cuts include about 185 positions in the Indianapolis area and 120 in Findlay, Ohio, Bank One spokesman Tom Kelly said Wednesday. The bank also will cut another 15 jobs nationwide.\nBank One notified employees of the cuts in a memo that said the bank will convert its mortgage-lending operations to the platform used by Chase Home Finance, the nation's fourth-largest mortgage provider.\n"The combination of two mortgage service divisions, duplicated functions and excess capacity led to this move," Kelly said.\nChase Home Finance has some 17,000 employees nationwide, while Bank One's mortgage lending division has fewer than 1,000, he said.\n"One of the reasons you do mergers is to cut costs. And in the banking business, the single biggest cost is people," said Steven J. Beck, president of Indiana Venture Center Inc. and founder of Old National Bank's Indianapolis operations.\nMost of the cuts in Indiana will be made at Bank One's consumer lending unit in Fishers, Kelly said. About 15 jobs will be eliminated at Bank One's downtown office. The employees will be laid off between July 1 and Oct. 31.\nWorkers will be eligible to apply for 100 current openings in central Indiana or outside placement assistance, he said.\nKelly said the bank still was reviewing the remaining 215 positions in Fishers. Those workers chiefly process home equity loans.\nMeanwhile, Bank One is continuing with plans to consolidate its Indianapolis-area operations downtown.\n"Today's move will have no impact on customer service or our client base," said Bank One Indiana chief executive Dennis L. Bassett. "We plan to continue to increase employment in the tower, look at more space over time and move more folks in there by the end of the year."\nNew York-based J.P. Morgan Chase, the nation's third-largest bank, and Chicago-based Bank One, the sixth-largest, announced plans for the $58 billion merger in January. The resulting bank, which would operate under the J.P. Morgan name, would become the nation's second-largest bank, with assets of $1.1 trillion and 2,300 branches.