Dive Brief:
- Blockchain took another step into the fintech space with the test of a debt issuance platform developed on JPMorgan Chase's in-house open-source Quorum blockchain, reports Reuters. The project tested the ledger tech for settlement, interest rate payments, origination and other financial instruments and included partners such as the National Bank of Canada, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Pfizer Inc, and Legg Mason Inc's Western Asset.
- JPMorgan might spin off its Quorum technology, which has garnered a lot of interest from other companies, reports Reuters. In the meantime, the company plans to move dozens of its engineers to the blockchain team.
- In addition to the successes of its own blockchain platform, JPMorgan CIO Lori Beer has continued engagement in the fintech startup space through numerous partnerships, investments, acquisitions and residencies, according to an interview with Business Insider. These include the recent purchases of WePay for more than $220 million and $100 million in a funding round for Bill.com.
Dive Insight:
Many large, financial institutions with the resources are becoming technology leaders in their own right.
Amid the sea of failed and dead-end blockchain pilots, the financial services industry is one of the few hitting repeated successes. And within that industry, JPMorgan has emerged as a pack leader, certainly helped by having a $9.5 billion technology budget to play around with.
Innovation doesn't have to come from as lucrative technologies as blockchain. The company has built out the leadership and focus for data investment and infrastructure, and just last month, JPMorgan teamed up with Amazon's Alexa to open up access to analyst research by voice commands.
