JPMorgan Chase Expects Blockchain Services to Boost Swiss Market Share

JPMorgan Chase reportedly aims to use its blockchain services to boost its corporate banking market share in Switzerland.

The bank’s blockchain services are already being in Germany by companies like Siemens, and the technology presents opportunities for growth in cash management, Lutz Karl, who heads JPMorgan Chase’s corporate banking business in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, told Reuters in a report posted Wednesday (Sept. 11).

“We’re also have a lot of discussions on the subject in Switzerland, and expect to bring the first customers onto the platform in the next few months,” Karl said, per the report.

With that and other offerings, JPMorgan Chase is working to grow its corporate banking business in the country over the next three to five years, according to the report.

The bank and its competitors have seen opportunities for growth after last year’s collapse of Credit Suisse, the report said.

Currently, JPMorgan Chase serves about 60 large companies in Switzerland, including all 20 on the SMI blue chip index, and over two dozen small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), per the report.

Siemens became one of the first companies to use Onyx by J.P. Morgan’s programmable payments through the blockchain-based digital currency, JPM Coin, when it successfully completed its initial payment in November.

This solution allows users to program their transactions using an “If-This-Then-That” interface, providing greater control and flexibility over their accounts, according to a press release issued at the time.

“Programmability has been a key objective for digital currencies and tokenized money since the beginning,” Naveen Mallela, head of Coin Systems at Onyx by J.P. Morgan, said in the release. “Our new offering makes payments programmable ushering in the era of dynamic and event driven infrastructure in the industry. This is an important milestone and foundational for real-time, automated and programmable treasury.”

Blockchain technology holds great potential for cross-border payments, Mallela told PYMNTS in an interview posted in December.

“Shared ledger infrastructure can take the construct and turn it on its head by bringing banks together on a single unit, which means your debits and credits are all happening instantaneously with certainty and optimal liquidity,” Mallela said.