JPMorgan Chase released today its 2021 ESG report, which provides updates on the firm’s efforts to run a healthy, vibrant company that is helping to advance a more sustainable and inclusive economy. It includes an update on the firm financing and facilitating approximately $285 billion in 2021 towards its $2.5 trillion, 10-year target to help address climate change, support community development, and contribute to sustainable development in emerging markets through the end of 2030. Across these three objectives, 41 percent went towards development finance, 37 percent towards green, and 22 percent towards community development in 2021.
“The past year has shown what companies like ours can and must do to serve our customers, clients and communities by bringing together the best of our business to help address significant economic and societal challenges,” said Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase. “We are leveraging capital and expertise to support a greener future for the planet and advance racial equity. JPMorgan Chase will continue to lead with a tireless focus on doing the right thing, even when it’s not easy or expedient.”
Additional key 2021 updates on the firm’s efforts to help address critical global challenges like climate change and the racial wealth gap include:
- Climate Action: Helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also meeting the world’s growing demand for energy in a stable and secure way by:
- Helping green go big: Facilitated more than $100 billion for green initiatives like renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable transportation towards the firm’s sustainable development target. For example:
- Served as Joint Lead Arranger for more than $2 billion in financing for the 800 megawatt Vineyard Wind project, the first offshore wind farm in the United States capable of generating power at utility scale and the country’s largest source of offshore wind power. The project is expected to supply enough energy to serve the needs of 400,000 Massachusetts households and businesses and avoid 1.68 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually.
- Minimizing the firm’s operational environmental impact: Maintained carbon neutrality across more than 6,000 corporate offices, bank branches and data centers, and set a new target to reduce our Scope 1 and Scope 2 (location-based) emissions by 40 percent by 2030 versus a 2017 baseline. As of the end of 2021, the firm had reduced Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by approximately 15 percent.
These efforts are in addition to the firm becoming the first large U.S. financial institution to set Paris-aligned 2030 emission intensity reduction targets in oil & gas, electric power and auto manufacturing sectors.
- Development Finance: Mobilizing capital to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals ("SDGs") in emerging economies by assessing nearly 600 Corporate & Investment Banking transactions with a total value of approximately $117 billion through the J.P. Morgan Development Finance Institution. The transactions’ anticipated impact covered a majority of the 17 SDGs. For example:
- Acted as Development Finance Structuring Agent (DFSA) for Liquid Telecom’s $620 million corporate bond issuance. Liquid Telecom is one of the largest multi-country fiber network operators in Sub-Saharan Africa. The bond issuance is expected to enable Liquid Telecom to help address key development gaps in the region and improve delivery of education, healthcare and key services to both urban and rural populations in Sub-Saharan Africa, by connecting approximately 800 buildings and 5,000 homes to the Fiber to the Home ("FTTH") network in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Zambia; doubling the capacity of the company’s FTTH network to approximately 100,000 existing homes in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia; increasing coverage in Zambia and Zimbabwe by adding more than 100 additional LTE sites; expanding its fiber network in the Democratic Republic of Congo to reach, via service providers, approximately 75% of the population; and creating employment opportunities specifically in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
- Racial Equity: Helping close the racial wealth gap among Black, Hispanic and Latino communities through the firm’s $30 Billion Racial Equity Commitment with the goal of increasing homeownership and affordable housing, growing and strengthening small businesses, and improving access to banking. By the end of 2021, the firm had deployed or committed more than $18 billion toward its $30 billion goal. Highlights include:
- Hired more than 100 Community Managers and 150 Community Home Lending Advisors to build and nurture relationships with residents, community leaders, diverse real estate agents and non-profit organizations. These individuals host regular workshops – free of charge and open to the public – that focus on a wide range of topics like building a budget, saving for a down payment, and credit health while finding the right products and services to support individuals’ financial health goals.
- Hired 25 Senior Business Consultants to offer free one-on-one mentorship, coaching, and technical assistance to Black, Hispanic and Latino business owners in 14 U.S. cities.
- Opened 10 additional Community Center branches, with new locations expected to open in 2022 in Atlanta, Baltimore, Miami, Philadelphia and Tulsa.
- Opened 47 out of 100 branches in low-to-moderate communities, many with larger Black, Hispanic and Latino populations.
- Invested more than $100 million of equity in 15 diverse-owned or –led MDIs (Minority Depository Institutions) and CDFIs (Community Development Financing Institutions) that collectively serve more than 89 communities in 19 states and the District of Columbia. This additional capital will help these institutions hire staff, invest in technology enhancement and expand into new markets. In addition, provided more than $190 million in incremental financing to CDFIs.
- Approved funding for approximately $13 billion in loans to help create and preserve more than 100,000 affordable housing and rental units across the United States.
- Expanded our homebuyer grant program to $5,000 and continue prudently expanding Federal Housing Administration ("FHA") lending while also supporting policy reform.
- Helped customers open over 200,000 low cost checking accounts with no overdraft fees.
The firm is also supporting government policies that promote equality by helping Americans who have no credit file begin to gain access to credit and affordable loans, expand access to the SBA loan programs, and diversify the appraisal industry and funding to increase supply of affordable homes for purchase.
In addition to its Racial Equity Commitment, the firm garnered over $5 billion in assets under management through its Empowering Change program, an initiative which supports minority and diverse-led financial institutions with the ability to develop new and reoccurring revenue opportunities by offering an exclusive money market share class to their institutional clients. The firm has committed to an annual 12.5% donation of gross revenue received from the management fees on the Empower share class to support community development.
As part of its commitment to advance a diverse, equitable and inclusive world, JPMorgan Chase also continues to deepen the incorporation of diversity into recruiting, training, developing and retaining its employees. As of December 31, 2021, of U.S. employees who completed race / ethnicity self-identification, 20 percent self-identified as Hispanic, 17 percent self-identified as Asian and 14 percent self-identified as Black. Moreover, the firm launched three new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Centers of Excellence: Advancing Hispanics and Latinos, the Office of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs and the Office of LGBT+ Affairs.
The report has been informed by the recommendations of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
About JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading financial services firm based in the United States of America (“U.S.”), with operations worldwide. JPMorgan Chase had $4.0 trillion in assets and $285.9 billion in stockholders’ equity as of March 31, 2022. The Firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing and asset management. Under the J.P. Morgan and Chase brands, the Firm serves millions of customers in the U.S., and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients globally. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.
Investor Contact: Aaron Bertinetti
aaron.bertinetti@jpmchase.com
Media Contact: Amalia Kontesi
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