By Matthias Rieker
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Bank of America Corp. (BAC)
and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) are deploying mobile automated
teller machines equipped with cellular signals and generators to
help customers impacted by Hurricane Sandy to get cash.
TD Bank, the U.S. retail bank of Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD,
TD.T), is ready to send four self-powered banking trailers,
essentially mobile branches, to areas where branches aren't back in
service. New Jersey's barrier islands may be one area where the
banking trailers will be sent to if the bank gets permission, a
spokeswoman said.
The banks, including Citigroup Inc. (C), also put their own
generators in branches that lost power as they reopen them
Wednesday across the metropolitan New York area. Branches elsewhere
in Hurricane Sandy's path started to reopen Tuesday.
"Today is a really important day," Ryan McInerney, the Chief
Executive of Chase consumer banking, said in an interview. "It's an
important pay day, it's a Social Security payment day, end of month
is really important for our customers." The bank has prepared since
last Thursday to get branches and ATMs prepared to open soon after
the storm and keep them from running out of cash, he said.
J.P. Morgan Chase is deploying mobile ATMs usually used at
events like the Black Eyed Peas concert in New York's Central Park
last year and the United States Open Tennis Championships in
Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
The nation's largest bank by assets, and the larges by far in
the New York metropolitan area by branches and deposits, had
already assembled power generators in central locations before the
storm hit so they can be put in storm struck branches where
customer traffic and cash needs demanded quick return to service,
Mr. McInerney said.
Some of Chase's coastal branches sustained extensive damage, Mr.
McInerney said. But on Wednesday morning, almost 600 branches, or
about 60% of branches in the New York metropolitan area, were back
in service. About 150 branches run on generators.
"We've been through these types of things many times before, so
we have a good sense where we need more cash," Mr. McInerney said.
All branches were inspected again before the storm hit and again
after the storm passed. Branches were open an extra two hours
Saturday to allow customers to bank before the storm.
Other banks, including TD Bank, has also put more cash than
usual in ATMs before the storm hit. TD Bank is the third largest
bank by deposits in New Jersey and the seventh largest in the
metropolitan New York area, according to the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp.
In addition to its nine barrier island, N.J., branches, TD Bank
branches in Hoboken, N.J., and Hudson County, N.J., and Howard
Beach, N.Y., are still out.
Bank of America, the second largest retail bank in metropolitan
New York, said the majority of branches in the Northeast are open.
"We are also working to open up some banking centers in Manhattan
today," a spokesman said. Mobile ATMs would also be deployed in
Manhattan, he said.
A Citi spokeswoman said 70% of ATMs and almost 60% of its almost
300 branches in the New York metropolitan area are open as of
midday Wednesday. Mid-Atlantic branches and Massachusetts branches
are open, except for two in Pennsylvania.
HSBC Bank USA, the U.S. retail banking business of HSBC Holdings
PLC (HBC, HSBA.LN) of London, opened all branches in Delaware,
Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and Virginia Wednesday,
and select branches in New York City, Connecticut and New Jersey.
In total, the bank opened 101 of 189 impacted branches, a spokesman
said.
A Wells Fargo spokeswoman said 106 of its 156 branches in New
York and Connecticut are open. Some stores in Manhattan, Long
Island, and coastal Connecticut remain closed Wednesday. In total,
1,030 branches in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia opened
Wednesday.
Write to Matthias Rieker at matthias.rieker@dowjones.com
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