JPMorgan Chase acquired First Republic Bank this morning after regulators stepped in over the weekend to facilitate the sale of the struggling bank — and is prepared to spend $2 billion integrating First Republic into its platform over the next 18 months.

“Over time, we will be converting First Republic’s operations and platforms to Chase and JPMorgan brands and technology platforms,” Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said this morning during the bank’s investor call.

The next several months will “be all about planning,” Gartner Senior Analyst Wellington Holbrook told Bank Automation News.

For example, JPMorgan teams will determine how to approach core conversion, customer record imports, data merging and more, Holbrook said. “There’s going to be a lot of work in the next few months for the technology teams.”

Comparing existing systems

JPMorgan and First Republic both use FIS as their core provider. However, JPMorgan uses the FIS MISER platform and First Republic uses FIS’ Integrated Banking Solution, according to data provided to BAN from FINavigator.

Although the banks use different solutions from FIS, there could be advantages to having the same provider, Holbrook said. He noted that the banks should keep in mind they most likely have customized solutions from FIS that will require effort from the technology teams ahead of integration.

Similarly, the banks both use Snowflake Data Platform as their database and database warehouse solution, which could offer some simplification, according to FINavigator; but, again, those solutions are most likely customized to each bank.

In the short term, the first question JPMorgan must answer before integration starts is what does it want the customer experience to be, Holbrook said. The answer to that question will determine the timeline, cost and how complicated the integration work will be.