JPMorgan Chase plans to make an investment in UK fintech

One of the largest multinational investment banks in the US is said to be negotiating an investment in the UK fintech sector. According to a representative, JPMorgan Chase is planning to make an investment in 10x Future Technologies, a fintech start-up founded three years ago in London. The deal is supposed to be finalized in a few weeks’ time. So far, the exact volume of the deal is unknown.

The UK is one of the most popular destinations for investments in the fintech industry, due to its large number of technology start-ups. As for now, there are already more than 50 crypto companies present in the UK. At the same time, most of the commercial banks have online banking and mobile applications. Apart from commercial and investment banks, other financial companies like UK Forex brokers have also started integrating new eCommerce technologies offered by UK start-ups. As a result of high competition, the UK plays a leading role in the development of fintech worldwide.

JPMorgan Chase is actively involved in modern finance technologies. Concerned by the possibility of smaller banks advancing in the industry by offering newer and cheaper technologies to their clients, JPMorgan has allocated a budget of more than $10 billion per year to technological advancements. 

So far, one of its biggest projects in this field is building a so-called “fintech camp” in Silicon Valley. In this camp, more than a thousand employees will be constantly working on the fintech part of the operations of the bank. Over the last few years, the bank has already purchased a number of business payment technology providers, such as WePay.

On the other side of the possible deal is a relatively young start-up. It was created by Antony Jenkins, a former group chief executive of Barclays. 10x Future Technologies is working on making banking services faster and cheaper. Their main focus is reducing the time needed to retrieve customer information. 

In order to do so, they are conducting research on changed behavioural patterns of people and are trying to provide customers with appropriate technology underpinning banking operations. After initial success, the company was facing a blurry future thanks to losing a deal with a large UK bank Virgin Money. 

The start-up was already working on a project for Virgin Money when the bank’s leadership changed and decided to terminate the agreement. Should JPMorgan finalize the purchase of a stake in 10x Future Technologies, it would be of vital importance to the existence of the start-up.

Despite the fast pace with which technologies are advancing right now, many banks are still stuck in the conventional methods that were developed years ago. Mr Jenkins himself is one of the most vivid critics of the banks’ “outdated” technological systems. On numerous occasions, has he compared the current situation in the banking industry with the challenges that Uber has been facing. 

According to Mr Jenkins, giant banks might lose a considerable number of clients to more nimble competitors. ‎‎It is up to the world’s leading banks like JPMorgan to fully integrate faster and cheaper technologies supported by start-ups. If large investment accumulates in companies like 10x Future Technologies, the fintech companies will have more resources to dive into the improvement of the sector. This, in turn, will benefit both the commercial and investment banks, but also their users who will be able to use more convenient services.