(29 January 2025 – United States) As the global cross border payments market reaches US$290 trillion by 2030, leading banks are striving to innovate alongside increasingly common real-time domestic payments rails.
Euromoney’s Larissa Ku reports that JPMorgan is pursuing a dual-track strategy by enhancing traditional rails while building new blockchain-based solutions.
Innovation in banking requires a delicate balance of developing cutting-edge solutions while enhancing existing services. Banks must maintain flexibility in their offerings to accommodate diverse client needs across different stages of their business evolution.
“It’s a balance. How do you grow existing business while future-proofing for tomorrow? We are always innovating for the best outcome and we’re making strategic bets on new technologies and platforms. I believe if you don’t invest in new things, your current business will be at risk” commented JPMorgan Head of Cross Border Payments, Gayathri Vasudev.
JPMorgan has rebranded its “Onyx” blockchain division as Kinexys following the platform’s rapid scaling up. The platform now processes approximately US$2 billion in daily transactions with volumes increasing tenfold year-on-year.
A key development is the integration of Kinexys Digital Payments with JPMorgan’s FX services. The platform will enable near real-time FX settlement on chain. The new solution addresses two key pain points in cross border payments – settlement risk and processing delays.
“The industry has reached an inflection point. There is no going back. Digital payments and digital assets have innovation at the core, because introducing programmable ledgers means the core of the bank. These are the books and records of the bank” commented JPMorgan Global Co-Head of Kinexys, Naveen Mallela.
“It’s a lot of work to integrate and introduce new bookkeeping systems. That is why I think that the journey will be deliberate, but the direction is incontrovertible.“