“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.”