JP Morgan has introduced its blockchain-based bank account service, Kinexys Digital Payments (previously JPM Coin), in a third currency, GBP. This expansion enables 24/7 corporate payments and foreign exchange support for dollars, euros, and pounds. The initial users of the sterling service in London include LSEG’s SwapAgent and commodities trader Trafigura. Kinexys has handled over $1. 5 trillion in total transactions across its various services, including payments, intraday repo, collateral management, and others. It now processes approximately $2 billion in transactions daily. SwapAgent, LSEG’s LCH derivatives margin and settlement service, will utilize Kinexys Digital Payments through JP Morgan’s London subsidiary in its post-trade services pilot, which operates independently from the UK’s Digital Securities Sandbox.

Following this, wider adoption of the service will be considered. “Integrating the innovative Kinexys Digital Payments blockchain deposit accounts into our SwapAgent offerings could enable us to operate beyond traditional branch cut-off times and manage settlements programmatically in the future, ” stated Nathan Ondyak, CEO at SwapAgent, part of the London Stock Exchange Group. Trafigura employs Kinexys for 24/7 cross-border payments among its New York, London, and Singapore offices, with plans to implement programmable payments for near real-time fund sweeps between these centers. Payments in the Digital Securities Sandbox? The launch of Kinexys Digital Payments in the UK coincides with the early phases of the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), a collaborative effort by the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). JP Morgan was asked about its potential involvement but declined to comment. Institutional transaction settlements might be facilitated by Fnality, a tokenized settlement system utilizing central bank money. However, corporates and some non-bank financial institutions may lack access to central bank money, positioning Kinexys as a possible digital solution to meet this demand. Meanwhile, most of the UK’s major banks are developing the Regulated Liability Network, a tokenized deposit payment system, which is still not live.