$600 million of JP Morgan Chase’s $9.5 billion technology spend in 2016 went to fintech solutions, and given the company’s 2016 results, it seems like money well spent.
According to the company’s Annual Report 2016, released today, the bank’s spend on fintech included improving its mobile and digital services.
Chase ended the year with 26 million active customers on its mobile app.
It also reported 94 million transactions took place in 2016 on its P2P service, Chase QuickPay, representing a 30% increase year over year—and as Chase is one of the banks supporting Zelle, it expects further development in P2P during the course of 2017.
JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon wrote in the report:
Whether it is consumer payment systems (Zelle), mortgages (Roostify), auto finance (TrueCar), small business lending (OnDeck Capital) or communications systems (Symphony), we are successfully collaborating with some excellent fintech companies to dramatically improve our digital and other customer offerings.
According to Dimon, Chase will continue to innovate with fintechs, through offerings like its Developer Services API Store and non-specified “interesting developments” to its business services and bill payments.
Dimon did note that these improvements would be coming “as we integrate our capabilities with those of other companies,” which may indicate future fintech partnerships for the bank.
Adam Carson, head of digital partnerships for Chase, spoke on the bank’s relationship with fintechs at the Bank Innovation 2017 conference in San Jose:
Chase will be keeping up its momentum in payments, with Chief Operating Officer Matt Zames noting in the report that the bank has developed a new payments platform using “cutting-edge technologies.”
Zames writes in the report:
It [the platform] will replace nine monolithic platforms and enhance client value through real-time cross-border payment execution and end-to-end payment status transparency. In addition, the platform will enable us to bring new products to market more quickly and offer a more configurable, flexible client experience through reusable APIs and microservices for event processing.
The full report can be viewed on the bank’s site here.