Coinspeaker
JPMorgan Introduces Euro-Dominated Transaction Settlement for Corporate Clients
American multinational investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) has introduced euro-dominated payments for its corporate clients as unveiled by Basak Toprak, JPMorgan’s head of Coin Systems for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This was delivered as part of the investment giant’s plan to expand one of the most high-profile projects to bring blockchain technology to traditional banking through JPM Coin.
Four years ago, JPMorgan launched the world’s first bank-backed cryptocurrency dubbed JPM Coin which runs on top of Quorum. It was used as an instant settlement for transactions between the clients of the JPMorgan wholesale payments business. At the time, the token had three major use cases amongst which were cutting down on settlement times while replacing the wire transfers for global payments, and securities issuance.
Umar Farooq, head of JPMorgan’s blockchain projects said:
“Money sloshes back and forth all over the world in a large enterprise. Is there a way to ensure that a subsidiary can represent cash on the balance sheet without having to actually wire it to the unit? That way, they can consolidate their money and probably get better rates for it.”
JPMorgan on Track with JPM Coin Roadmap with Its Euro Settlements
A few months after the introduction of the JPM Coin, the investment manager began to initiate trials of the token with its corporate clients. The coin was only linked to the United States dollar at that initial stage but Farooq hinted at plans to expand its offering in the near future to accommodate other fiat currencies. With the introduction of euro transactions, JPMorgan is on the road to actualizing that vision.
Now, wholesale payment clients including renowned multinationals can choose to transfer either dollar or euro to/from their JPMorgan accounts anywhere in the world.
Payments could also be made to other customers of the bank by utilizing blockchain instead of conventional traditional banking methods. Markedly, JPM Coin transactions are not limited to certain working hours like traditional banking processes, rather it is constantly in operation and are faster.
Toprak, who announced the development, also mentioned that Siemens AG in Germany conducted the first euro payment on the platform. This is a major milestone for JPMorgan as many large banking firms have constantly explored blockchain, seeking answers to how the technology will make their processes easier but so far, only a few applications have been put to commercial use and large-scale benefits have proved elusive.
This outcome has caused many to wonder if blockchain technology is a solution that is seeking a problem. Since the launch of JPM Coin, the investment bank has used it to process transactions worth over $300 billion. Generally, as a banking giant, JPMorgan processes about $10 trillion worth of transactions on a daily basis.
JPMorgan Introduces Euro-Dominated Transaction Settlement for Corporate Clients