JPMorgan Chase, the world’s largest lender by market capitalization, is close to making a stunning entry into Britain’s personal banking market.
Sky News has learnt that the New York-listed behemoth will launch a range of savings and loan products using the Chase brand in the UK in the next few months.
The move will represent one of the most significant new entries into the consumer banking sector since the 2016 financial crisis, and could spark a new price war among lenders already struggling to deal with a protracted period of ultra-low interest rates.
JPMorgan is due to hold an investor day next week at which it will set out details of its growth strategy, although it was unclear this weekend whether the consumer banking launch in Britain would be mentioned.
Sources said that JPMorgan Chase has been in discussions with City and banking regulators about securing the necessary approvals to pave the way for the launch.
They added that the new service was likely to launch later this year.
The US-based bank reported in its fourth-quarter earnings last month that Chase had an average deposit base of $ (bn) £ bn).
Its consumer banking business operates predominantly in the US, and sources suggested that its expansion to the UK represented a valuable valuable opportunity for one of the world’s flagship banking brands.
One insider said that Chase was likely to offer savings and current accounts, as well as a range of open banking services and loan products.
It was unclear whether the bank planned to enter the fiercely competitive UK mortgage market.
Further details of JPMorgan’s plans could not be determined this weekend.
In the US, JPMorgan boasts that consumers can open an account online within five minutes, and now has well over 50 million digital banking customers.
It has, however, faced setbacks in its digital expansion strategy, announcing last year that it was closing Finn, its online-only brand, after poor take-up from consumers.
Elements of the technology platform for JPM organ’s UK digital bank are understood to have been developed by 20 x Future Technologies, the company set up by Antony Jenkins, the former Barclays chief executive.
Sky News revealed last June that JPMorgan was buying a stake in x.
TechCrunch, the technology news website, reported last summer that JPMorgan was also working on a secret digital banking project in London.
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