During JP Morgan Chase’s fourth quarter 2020 earnings conference call, CEO Jamie Dimon and CFO Jennifer Piepszak opined on the recent OCC approval of banks using stablecoins for payments, as well as whether or not approval will impact development from JPM Coin.
During the question and answer part of the call, Portales Partners analyst Charles Peabody asked about the OCC’s approval for banks to use public blockchain networks for payments.
“This guidance allows for a stable offer on a public blockchain. Therefore, it does not affect the JPM currency. You should think of JPM currency as the tokenization of our customers’ deposits, ”replied JPM CFO Jennifer Piepszak, according to a transcript of the call.
However, it did not rule out the possibility of a JPM-supported stablecoin if customers showed interest.
“So, it’s obviously too early. We will evaluate use cases and – and customer demand. But – but it is too early to see where it takes us. “
JPM CEO Jamie Dimon was also quick to mention that the bank is “using blockchain to share data with banks and therefore we are at the forefront of what is good”.
Launched in October 2020, JPM Coin is widely used in the backend of JPM’s payment systems, helping to settle almost $ 6 trillion in daily payments. In the call, Piepszak also described the JPM Coin project as “deposit tokenization to facilitate payments for the customer”.
Ultimately, Dimon seemed to suggest that the payment crypto agreement would not change the way JPM operates much.
“There is talk about several banks having digital currencies and things like that, right? Dimon concluded. “[…] So, I – I really hope that these things are coming and may not change our world much ”
Dimon may be underestimating the impact that cryptography will have on the payment landscape, however.
Paypal, one of the Fintech giants that Dimon mentioned by name as a payments competitor, confirmed that crypto payments will be available from 2021. The CEO – a former crypto skeptic – made it clear that payments will become increasingly increasingly congested and violent camp in the next decade:
I hope it will be a very, very difficult competition in the next 10 years. I hope to win. So help me God.