Onyx

SWIFT action: JPMorgan and Visa team up on cross-border blockchain payments

Visa is set to integrate its B2B Connect network with JPMorgan’s suit of blockchain-based cross-border payment products.

Traditional finance and payment giants JPMorgan and Visa are teaming up to streamline the use of their private blockchain solutions Liink and B2B Connect to facilitate cross-border payments.

According to an Oct. 11 report from Forbes, JPMorgan’s Liink is a network specifically designed for cross-border transfers and is offered under the bank’s blockchain and payments initiative, Onyx. Onyx provides a platform for institutions to share financial information and validate transactions.

Visa’s B2B Connect is a similar network to Liink that was built for institutional grade use and has now been integrated with Onyx’s Confirm.

Confirm is an account-information validation product, and ensures that transacting parties provide genuine identities and correct information. Onyx touts that Confirm is capable of verifying more than 2 billion bank accounts from 3,500 financial institutions.

Finextra reported on Oct. 11 that JPMorgan is looking to rope in a host of founding member banks across the globe as it works to launch Confirm in 10 countries by the end of this year. Moving forward, the bank is said to be eying a rollout in 30 countries next year.

German financial behemoth Deutsche Bank has also signed on to become a founding member of Confirm.

Confirm’s global head, Alex Littleton, explained in a public statement that “Confirm’s growth is heavily influenced by network effects,” adding that, “Naming Deutsche Bank as a founding member, while also establishing interconnectivity to Visa B2B’s blockchain, will accelerate our adoption on a global scale.”

With Visa teaming with JPMorgan and its suite of blockchain products, it seems that the duo has an eye on providing an alternative to the commonly used Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) messaging system to manage and facilitate cross-border payments.

The notion of cross-border payments has been in the spotlight this week, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore revealing on Oct. 10 that it could look to utilize blockchain tech to provide solutions to current issues with such, including speed and costs.

Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, noted in a keynote speech that the current state of cross-border payments is “not fit for the 21st century,” adding that:

“It is slow, costly, opaque, and inefficient, relying on an archaic network of correspondent banks.”

He outlined that the expansion of “private sector blockchain-based payment networks” could be one of the possible ways to solve this.

Ripple Labs has also made moves with its cross-border payments On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) product this week. On Oct. 11, it announced partnerships with payments firm Lemonway and money transfer provider Xbaht that will see the duo leverage the ODL network to provide crypto payments for customers in France, Thailand and Sweden.

JPMorgan CEO calls crypto ‘decentralized Ponzi schemes’

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon regards crypto as a tale of two cities, with “crypto tokens that you call currencies” on one side and “real” innovations on the other.

While testifying before United States (U.S.) lawmakers, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon referred to himself as a “major skeptic” on “crypto tokens that you call currency like Bitcoin,” labeling them as “decentralized Ponzi schemes.”

Dimon was asked what keeps him from being more active in the crypto space during an oversight hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee on Sept. 21.

Dimon emphasized that he sees value in blockchain, decentralized finance (DeFi), ledgers, smart contracts, and “tokens that do something,” but then proceeded to lambast crypto tokens that identify as currencies.

Asked for his thoughts about the draft U.S. stablecoin bill, Dimon said he believes that there is nothing wrong with stablecoins that are properly regulated and that the regulation should be similar to what money market funds are subject to.

Dimon has once described Bitcoin as a “fraud” and has reiterated in the past he has no interest in backing the sector on a personal level. He has softened his stance on crypto on occasion, once highlighting that it can serve important use cases at times such as cross-border payments.

Despite Dimon’s views on the cryptocurrency space, JPMorgan has been pushing into the blockchain technology space. The financial giant launched its own in-house stablecoin — JPM Coin in October 2020 — the first cryptocurrency backed by a U.S bank, which was aimed at increasing settlement efficiency.

A week after rolling out the coin, the bank launched a new business division dedicated to blockchain technology called Onyx. Since then the Onyx platform has been utilized by large institutional customers for round-the-clock global payments.

JPMorgan also became the first major bank in the Metaverse following the opening of its virtual lounge in the blockchain-based world Decentraland in February. The move followed a report that was released by the firm which referred to the Metaverse as a $1 trillion opportunity.

JPMorgan has been hiring new staff to push into the blockchain and crypto space, most recently announcing on Sept. 9 that it has hired former Microsoft executive Tahreem Kamptom to be its senior payments executive. Kamptom is expected to help JPMorgan explore blockchain tech given his Linkedin bio shows he has worked on crypto-related payment methods.

During the hearing, the lawmakers also asked other top U.S bank CEOs whether they had plans to finance crypto mining. Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, and Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf all suggested that their banks had no intentions of doing so.

JPMorgan CEO calls crypto ‘decentralized Ponzi schemes’

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon regards crypto as a tale of two cities, with “crypto tokens that you call currencies” on one side and “real” innovations on the other.

While testifying before United States lawmakers, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon referred to himself as a “major skeptic” on “crypto tokens that you call currency like Bitcoin,” labeling them as “decentralized Ponzi schemes.”

Dimon was asked what keeps him from being more active in the crypto space during an oversight hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.

Dimon emphasized that he sees value in blockchain, decentralized finance (DeFi), ledgers, smart contracts and “tokens that do something,” but then proceeded to lambast crypto tokens that identify as currencies.

Dimon has once described Bitcoin (BTC) as a “fraud” and has reiterated in the past that he has no interest in backing the sector on a personal level. He has softened his stance on crypto on occasion, once highlighting that it can serve important use cases at times such as cross-border payments.

A week after rolling out the coin, the bank launched a new business division dedicated to blockchain technology called Onyx. Since then, the Onyx platform has been utilized by large institutional customers for round-the-clock global payments.

JPMorgan also became the first major bank in the Metaverse following the opening of its virtual lounge in the blockchain-based world Decentraland in February. The move followed a report that was released by the firm, which referred to the Metaverse as a $1 trillion opportunity.