JPMorgan offers Euro-based transaction settlement for business customers.
The American multinational investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) has announced that it will now allow its corporate clients to make euro-dominated payments. This offering is part of the bank’s high-profile project to bring blockchain technology to traditional banking through JPM Coin. JPMorgan launched the world’s first bank-backed cryptocurrency, JPM Coin, four years ago. It runs on top of Quorum and was used as an instant settlement for transactions between clients of JPMorgan’s wholesale payments business. The token had three major use cases, including cutting down on settlement times and replacing wire transfers for global payments and securities issuance.
The head of JPMorgan’s blockchain projects, Umar Farooq, explained that the bank wants “a subsidiary [to] represent cash on the balance sheet without having to actually wire it to the unit.” JPM Coin could help them consolidate their money and get better rates.
After the introduction of JPM Coin, the bank began trials of the token with its corporate clients. The coin was initially only linked to the US dollar, but Farooq hinted at plans to expand its offering to other fiat currencies. With the introduction of euro transactions, JPMorgan is on track to actualize that vision. Wholesale payment clients can now choose to transfer either dollars or euros to/from their JPMorgan accounts anywhere in the world. Payments can also be made to other customers of the bank using blockchain technology instead of traditional banking methods. Transactions using JPM Coin are constantly in operation and are faster than traditional banking processes.
Siemens AG in Germany conducted the first euro payment on the JPM Coin platform. This is a major milestone for JPMorgan, as many large banking firms have explored blockchain technology but few applications have been put to commercial use and large-scale benefits have proved elusive. The investment bank has used JPM Coin to process transactions worth over $300 billion since its launch. Generally, JPMorgan processes about $10 trillion worth of transactions on a daily basis.
