“JP Morgan has signed a deal to buy a 48.5% stake in Athens-based payments fintech Viva Wallet for more than $800 million, a person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Saturday.”

“Banking giant JPMorgan Chase’s application for a trademark for a digital wallet with crypto features has been awarded by the U.S. Patent Office after more than two years in application status. JP Morgan has registered a digital wallet brand.  According to a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the bank filed a trademark for “JP Morgan Wallet” in July 2020; the filing was finally approved on November 15. The text of the trademark indicates that it can be applied to online services, including cryptocurrency payment processing, the electronic transfer of virtual currencies by an online community, and the exchange of virtual currencies. The trademark does not exclusively apply to crypto services. It can also be applied to other financial services, including virtual checking accounts, Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments, e-check processing, and bill payments.”

“Multinational banking behemoth JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM has completed the first-ever cross-border transaction using decentralized finance (DeFi) on an open blockchain. The trade was facilitated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Project Guardian on Nov. 2. Project Guardian was established to explore potential decentralized finance applications in wholesale funding markets and has completed its first live trades.”

“JPMorgan Chase is betting that landlords and tenants are finally ready to ditch paper checks and embrace digital payments. The bank is piloting a platform it created for property owners and managers that automates the invoicing and receipt of online rent payments, according to Sam Yen, chief innovation officer of JPMorgan’s commercial banking division.   While digital payments have steadily taken over more of the world’s transactions, boosted in recent years by the pandemic, there is one corner of commerce where paper still reigns supreme: the monthly rent check. That’s because the market is highly fragmented, with most of the country’s 12 million property owners running smaller portfolios of fewer than 100 units.”

“J.P. Morgan, the leading merchant acquirer globally by volume of transactions1, is ramping up its Merchant Services capabilities in Asia Pacific (APAC) as it looks to offer the full spectrum of its payments services to corporates operating in a region that accounts for the largest retail e-commerce sales in the world2. The global financial services firm – which processed more than 35 billion transactions on behalf of clients in 2021, and is also the top merchant acquirer in the U.S.3 and leading e-commerce merchant acquirer in Europe4 by transaction volumes – recently expanded its acquiring solution to Singapore, South Korea and New Zealand, in addition to Australia, India and Japan, with Hong Kong planned by the end of the year.”

“Banking giant JP Morgan announced it is developing a digital identity offering empowering users to “choose identity credentials you want to share throughout your interactions online, across the web3, the metaverse, DeFi, and beyond.” The solution is not a live product offering and there are no guarantees the bank will launch it, JP Morgan said in a disclaimer. The digital identity offering is powered by JP Morgan’s Onyx, one the first bank-led blockchain platforms allowing users to trade value, information, and digital assets. The platform processed more than $300 billion in short-term loans since its launch in December 2020 through June 2022. Now, the Wall Street giant is working on a web3 digital identity solution to provide users with total control over their digital credentials, allowing them to prove who they are from anywhere and letting them share “only what you want to share.” JP Morgan’s goal is to enable users to store, share, and view digital assets bound to a single digital identity.”

“JPMorgan Chase is giving some customers early access to their direct deposits, a feature popularized by fintech rivals, as it hopes to attract users to a no-overdraft checking account. The bank is switching on this feature — which accelerates payments including payroll, tax refunds, pensions and government benefits by up to two days — to customers of its Secure Banking product starting this week, according to Ryan MacDonald, head of growth financial products for Chase.   That typically means getting paid on a Wednesday rather than Friday, he said.”

“JP Morgan already enables tokenized U.S. dollar deposits with JPM Coin. Now it plans to enable blockchain-based Euro deposits ‘soon’ said Basek Toprak, head of Coin Systems at Onyx by JP Morgan. On another related topic, JP Morgan sees a payment opportunity for NFTs. “The technology today is not friendly enough for mass adoption,” said Brody Mulderig, who covers Fintech at JP Morgan, talking at the Crypto Assets conference.”

“Pye, a leading kiosk manufacturer, has teamed with Chase, a world financial leader, to securely process payments through its self-service point-of-sale solutions across Canada. As the Alabama-based firm expands its thriving U.S. footprint and ramps up sales and distribution of its innovative equipment outside of the United States, those units will connect with Chase’s end-to-end secure payment system. Chase’s solution will facilitate a variety of electronic payment methods, including contactless payments such as Android and Apple Pay. The offering comes as intercepted payments and hacks have dogged the transactional industry in recent years and as the COVID-19 pandemic pushes consumers to look for more contactless payment options. Backed by the power of Chase, concerned consumers can be confident when using Pye solutions, said Jegil Dugger, Pye founder and CEO.”

“Demand for cryptocurrencies as a payment method has drastically declined over the past six months, according to Takis Georgakopoulos, global head of payments at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “We saw a lot of demand for our clients, let’s say up until six months ago,” Georgakopoulos said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Tuesday. “We see very little right now” but the bank will still support clients who want to use that method, he said. Cryptocurrencies are plowing through a downturn that has erased some $2 trillion in market value in less than a year and slashed volumes on many exchanges. High-profile digital-asset companies have also been pushed into bankruptcy. (subscription required)”

“There are very few chief executive officers that the market pays attention to more than Jamie Dimon, the esteemed leader of JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank by assets. So, as Dimon has intensified his calls on the growing competition from rival fintech companies, and at times what he calls their “unfair” advantages, investors may have been worried about the future of more traditional banks. But Dimon over the years has also vowed to fight hard, especially in the increasingly competitive world of payments. Now, the longtime CEO seems to be making good on that promise with JPMorgan’s recent fintech acquisitions. Let’s take a look at these recent acquisitions and how they could help the bank ward off competition from the likes of large fintech payment processors like Stripe and Plaid.”

“JPMorgan Chase has agreed to acquire a payments startup called Renovite to fend off threats from fintech firms including Stripe and Block , CNBC has learned. The bank, a major player in the global payments arena, said that acquiring Fremont, California based Renovite will speed up its ability to roll out new offerings to merchants.   While JPMorgan is the world’s biggest provider of merchant services by transaction volume, fast-growing upstarts including Stripe and Block have climbed the rankings in recent years, thanks to booming e-commerce sales and the proliferation of new payment methods. Merchant acquirers are crucial, behind-the-scenes providers that enable sellers to accept in-person and online payments, keeping a small cut of each transaction.”

“Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, and Chase, the largest co-brand card issuer in the U.S., today launched the new Instacart Mastercard credit card, with Mastercard as the exclusive payments network. With this first-ever credit card from Instacart, cardmembers can earn unlimited cash back with a range of redemption options, along with additional rewards and benefits. The new Instacart Mastercard from Chase, a World Elite Mastercard, offers cardmembers: Accelerated Earning Opportunities on Groceries and Everyday Purchases 5% cash back on Instacart purchases made at more than 800 national, regional, and local retail brands from more than 70,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities5% cash back on travel purchased through the Chase Travel Center2% cash back on restaurants, gas stations, and select streaming services1% cash back on all other purchases.”

“To help merchants improve their marketing, pricing and staffing strategies in a tightening economy, Chase this week began sharing deep insights about shoppers’ habits gleaned from two streams: its U.S. massive consumer card-spending database and huge national card-processing operations. The new resource, called Chase Customer Insights, rolled out this week after months of testing to Chase small-business customers and users of QuickAccept, the newest version of its small-business card acceptance service…(subscription required).”

“Today the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced Project Guardian, a digital assets pilot using tokenization on public blockchains. The project involves regulated financial institutions acting as ‘trust anchors’ with an initial pilot involving JP Morgan, DBS Bank and Marketnode, the SGX joint venture for bonds. Tokenized bonds and deposits will be used in a permissioned liquidity pool for DeFi transactions involving borrowing and lending on a public blockchain. This solution is not targeted at retail investors, so it will only be available in the wholesale market.”