Wall Street Banking Giant JPMorgan Is Framing a Cryptocurrency Strategy
Fintech and crypto expert Oliver Harris has been recently appointed by banking giant JPMorgan to lead the bank’s crypto asset strategy. Knowing the famous criticism for Bitcoin by CEO Jamie Dimon last year, the crypto community is appalled by this move.
The main task of the new appointee Mr. Harris will be exploring the use of digital assets and money for the bank’s corporate and investment purposes. He will be also responsible for investigating other crypto custody and storage services as well as integrating the blockchain technology with the bank’s payment businesses.
Before taking up this new role, Harris was leading JPMorgan’s In Residence program that identifies and partners with different fintech startups which the bank finds promising.
Digital currencies and the emergence of blockchain technology has brought some big transformational change in the global financial space with several banking giants now trying to develop their service around it.
A few months back, Bank of America said that it might be somewhat difficult for them to compete against these new financial products and services. In an official report, the bank explained “In addition, the widespread adoption of new technologies, including internet services, cryptocurrencies and payment systems, could require substantial expenditures to modify or adopt our existing products and services as we grow and develop our internet banking and mobile banking channel strategies in addition to remote connectivity solutions. We might not be successful in developing or introducing new products or services.”
On the other hand, in a recent interview with the CNBC, JPMorgan co-president Daniel Pinot said that the bank is “looking into” cryptocurrencies and also said that the blockchain technology will play a “key role” in the global financial system.
During the interview, Pinto said: “We are looking into that space. I have no doubt that in one way or another, the technology will play a role. [Regarding bitcoin], you cannot have something where the business proposition is to be anonymous and to be the currency for unknown activities. That will have a very short life, because people will stop believing in it, or the regulators will kill it. I think the concept is valid, you have many central banks looking into. The tokenization of the economy, for me, is real. Cryptocurrencies are real but not in the current form.”
Pinto also stated that in the coming few days, the bank might also start clearing for its brokerage clients. He said: “If we need to clear futures of bitcoin, can we do it? Yes. Have we done it? No.”