California: JPMorgan Chase & Co. expanded one of the most high-profile projects to bring blockchain technology to traditional banking, introducing euro-denominated payments for corporate clients using its JPM Coin.
JPM Coin, which the bank launched in 2019 to move dollars, went live with euro transactions on Wednesday, Basak Toprak, JPMorgan’s head of Coin Systems for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told Bloomberg News. Germany’s Siemens conducted the first euro payment on the platform, Toprak said. A Siemens representative confirmed the cross-border transaction.
While large banks have spent almost a decade exploring ways to use blockchain for making the myriad processes they execute more efficient, few applications have been put to commercial use and large-scale benefits have proved elusive. That’s led some skeptics to question whether the technology is a solution in search of a problem.
JPM Coin is a rare instance of a live blockchain application by a large bank, yet is a minuscule part of JPMorgan’s payments business. The bank has used it to process about $300 billion of transactions since its launch. By comparison, JPMorgan processes nearly $10 trillion of payments overall on a daily basis.
The system allows wholesale payments clients such as large multinationals to transfer dollars or euros to and from their various JPMorgan accounts around the world, or make payments to other customers of the bank using blockchain rather than traditional payment rails. JPM Coin payments operate constantly, unlike traditional transactions that are typically only processed during business hours, and they’re also executed more quickly.
Corporate treasurers can use the system to better manage liquidity, for example by initiating payments just before they are due, according to Toprak.
“There are cost benefits to paying at the right time,” Toprak said. “This could mean they could earn more interest income on their deposits.”
Several of JPMorgan’s biggest rivals are also pushing ahead with blockchain and digital-asset projects. Goldman Sachs Group unveiled its digital-asset platform in November, saying clients can use it to issue financial securities in the form of digital assets in areas such as real estate. The Wall Street firm, along with Banco Santander and Societe Generale, helped the European Investment Bank issue a digital bond last year using blockchain technology.
