JPMorgan has elevated its blockchain platform, JPM Coin, by introducing a groundbreaking programmable payment feature tailored for its institutional users. Naveen Mallela, the head of JPMorgan’s Onyx, the bank’s blockchain platform, unveiled the innovative functionality on LinkedIn, emphasizing its availability to all institutional clients.
This programmable payments feature promises real-time, programmable treasury capabilities and sets the stage for new digital business models. Mallela heralded the launch as a monumental milestone for JPM Coin, characterizing the newfound programmability as the “holy grail” for the blockchain platform.
The Onyx team, in collaboration with JPM Coin, revealed that this feature represents a long-pursued goal within the payments industry and boldly claims it to be a “first-of-its-kind” initiative by a global commercial bank. Operating within the JPM Coin System, the solution empowers users to program payments through an “If-This-Then-That” interface, introducing a level of flexibility not seen before.
Siemens AG, a German tech giant, has become the inaugural institutional client to leverage the programmable payments feature, showcasing its practicality as of November 6. Notably, both FedEx and Cargill are slated to adopt this solution by the end of 2023, according to Onyx.
The programmable payments functionality brings a host of automated capabilities to users, including dynamic funding, allowing for rule-based dynamic funding of a bank account during shortfalls. Event-based payouts are another noteworthy use case, enabling payments triggered by specific events such as margin calls, asset deliveries, and fulfillment of contractual obligations.
Naveen Mallela emphasized the significance of programmability in digital currencies and tokenized money, citing it as a key objective from the outset. Siemens AG’s group treasurer, Peter Rathgeb, sees this introduction as a strategic move, merging the advantages and features from the crypto world with JPMorgan’s blockchain-based bank accounts. Rathgeb envisions this as a catalyst for Siemens to achieve higher levels of automation, optimizing working capital usage and supporting scalable digital business models from the treasury side.
Beyond this development, JPMorgan is actively working on a new blockchain-based solution for cross-border transactions, separate from its existing JPM Coin platform. However, the deployment of this new deposit token solution awaits regulatory approval in the United States.