Hello, and welcome back to Inc.'s 1 Smart Business Story. JPMorganChase is rolling out a sweeping new effort to expand support for small businesses and putting real money behind it. As part of its newly announced American Dream Initiative, the bank plans to earmark roughly $80 billion for small‑business lending over the next decade, while also expanding training, coaching, and advisory services nationwide. The goal is to grow its small‑business relationships by 3 million, pairing access to capital with tools to help founders become “credit‑ready.” The initiative spans direct lending, partnerships with community lenders, and expanded banker support, signaling a long‑term bet that small‑business growth is central to economic resilience.

In this article you’ll learn:

• Why JPMorganChase is committing $80 billion to small‑business lending

• How the bank plans to pair capital with coaching and tools

• What small businesses need to qualify and access the funding

BY BRIAN CONTRERAS, STAFF WRITER

The JPMorganChase program is part of a new Jamie Dimon-backed program called the American Dream Initiative.

JPMorganChase is looking to ramp up its support for small businesses with a sweeping new outreach program—and there’s billions of dollars on the line for companies that come aboard.

On Tuesday morning, the financial services giant announced its plans for a wide-reaching new project called the American Dream Initiative, which aims to boost economic opportunity nationwide through a long list of investments and initiatives around topics such as housing, healthcare, and financial literacy. To kick things off, JPMorganChase announced an ambitious goal of turbo-charging its support for small businesses by expanding from 7 million commercial relationships with SMBs to 10 million.

“The American Dream is alive, but it’s slipping out of reach for too many people—and for future generations,” JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement. “This slows economic growth, hurts communities and prevents many people from getting ahead. By reigniting the American Dream through smart local investments and policies that we know work, we can work together to make the economy benefit more people—helping them buy homes, get good jobs and build better lives.”

The opening volley of the years-long undertaking finds JPMC focused on small business development, including facilitating access to capital, entrepreneurial training, and tools. The goal is ultimately to develop commercial relationships with 3 million new small businesses nationwide.

Part of that outreach? A target of around $80 billion in small business lending over the next decade. Some of that money will be lent directly by JPMC, the bank says, including through standard lines of credit and credit card lending; other loans will be facilitated through Community Development Financial Institutions and federal programs such as Small Business Administration microloans and the State Small Business Credit Initiative.

“The vast majority of it will be full commercial standard lending at market rates, with a market-standard credit box,” Chase for Business CEO Ben Walter tells Inc. “That’s really important: we don’t want to stretch the credit box in an uncomfortable way, because making a loan to someone who can’t pay it back—not only does it not help us, it doesn’t help them either.”

As for accessing the money? “It’s available today,” Walter says.

The bank also says it will hire another 1,000 small business bankers and nearly double its senior business consultants to 150, while also aiming to 7x its “Coaching for Impact” support program to graduate over 100,000 small business owners.

“It’s really important to pair that credit piece with the coaching piece,” Walter says. “Part of our job, and part of the value that we deliver, is we help a business get credit-ready.”

Eligibility will generally focus on businesses that have been around for at least two years, he adds, and can be accessed through JPMC’s branches and community centers, as well as a web portal. Non-JPMC clients are still eligible for the training programs.

The financial institution’s small business-focused efforts will also see it expand its suite of entrepreneurial tools—including ones “that simplify payroll, cash flow, and invoicing, offer robust 401k solutions, and provide actionable customer insights,” plus a new resource hub to help SMBs navigate employee healthcare plans—as well as work with local partners to revitalize main streets and commercial corridors around the country.

That latter program, says Walter, will be focused on “place-based revitalization programs along key commercial corridors—so places that might be transit or people-rich but are amenity-poor, where we can jump-start commercial activity in those areas through attractive lending programs.”

Other aspects of the announced programming are more government-centric, including one pledge to help small businesses participate in supplier programs for defense companies and other government contractors, and another to advocate for public policies “that increase capital and reduce red tape for small businesses.”

Indeed, Walter says this program is the flip side of JPMC’s Security and Resiliency Initiative, a pre-existing, $1.5 trillion effort to support industries pivotal to American national security. “You can’t have physical and national security without economic prosperity; you can’t have economic prosperity without physical and national security,” he says.

Although the initiative has nationwide aims, some key markets they say they’re focusing on include Atlanta, Alabama, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

Forthcoming aspects of the American Dream Initiative will expand its scope to other areas of national prosperity, with JPMC saying it aims to improve housing affordability for hundreds of thousands of renters and buyers; quintuple its financial education programming from one million to five million customers, students and entrepreneurs; and provide financing and support for thousands of local institutions across all fifty states, including schools, hospitals, governments and nonprofits.