JPMorgan says has room for more acquisitions

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), the second largest U.S. bank, has room to keep growing through acquisitions, the company's head of retail financial services said on Thursday.

In the areas where JPMorgan is already present, the bank looks for branches networks that could fit with its plans of growth, Chief Executive of retail financial services Charlie Scharf said at a conference organized by the BancAnalysts Association of Boston.

"If there is a specific area that we know next year, and the year after, and the year after that, we want to build 20 branches a year, if we can go and buy a bank with 25, 30 branches at the right price, with the right protection we would consider doing that," Scharf said.

"We have actually looked at all the banks in the country. We have looked at which ones we would be interested in based upon those cutoffs and based upon the attractiveness, so if they do become available we are kind of ready to go. We have got a lot of room to do the things that we want to do if they become available," Scharf said.

However, any deal in markets where JPMorgan is not present would have to be significant to set a strong footprint, he said.

JPMorgan, which has weathered the financial crisis better than its rivals, last year acquired investment bank Bear Stearns and the banking operations of Washington Mutual.

The bank, with 5,126 branches in the United States, is No. 1 in deposits in New York, Chicago, and Phoenix, and third in Los Angeles and Miami.

(Reporting by Juan Lagorio; editing by Gunna Dickson)