Yesterday Reuters reported that Takis Georgakopoulos, the head of JP Morgan’s payments division is leaving to pursue other opportunities, according to an internal memo. His role will be taken over by Max Neukirchen and Umar Farooq. Mr Farooq has led JP Morgan’s blockchain division, Onyx, since its founding. He was also simultaneously the Global Head of Financial Institution Payments.
In 2023 JP Morgan’s average daily payment volumes reached $9.7 trillion. The sector generated $18.2 billion in revenues, representing over a quarter of non-interest revenues. That makes payments the third largest revenue source at JP Morgan after interest income ($89 bn net) and principal transactions/trading ($24.5 bn).
Mr Farooq recently shared that blockchain-based bank accounts, JPM Coin, have now reached the high single digit billions of dollars in volumes on some days. He said transactions had ‘exploded’ since introducing programmable payments, with a larger volume of smaller payments.
Onyx is opening up its solution. It’s promoting JPM Coin as a blockchain-based payment solution for other distributed ledgers, so-called synchronized payments. The first example is an API integration with Broadridges DLR repo solution. Additionally, Onyx Digital Assets is inviting third parties who are interested in deploying apps on its permissioned blockchain.
If Mr Farooq gives up his Onyx role, the two most senior people in Onyx are Tyrone Lobban who heads Blockchain Launch and Onyx Digital Assets, and Naveen Mallela who heads Onyx Coin Systems.
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