Michael M. Santiago
Pushing ahead into blockchain technology, J.P. Morgan’s (NYSE:JPM) Onyx unit has launched programmable payments that allow its commercial clients to set up specific criteria that will trigger automatic payments.
“Programmable payments has been an aim for the payments industry for many years and we believe we’re the first commercial bank to get there through our Onyx and JPM Coin offering,” a company spokesperson said in an email to Seeking Alpha on Friday.
The new feature is available on blockchain-based accounts on the JPM Coin System, allowing users to program payments using an “if-this-then-that” interface.
“Programmability has been a key objective for digital currencies and tokenized money since the beginning,” said Naveen Mallela, head of Coin Systems, Onyx by J.P. Morgan (JPM). “Our new offering makes payments programmable, ushering in the era of dynamic and event-driven infrastructure in the industry.”
Siemens AG is the first JPM client to use the product. The technology takes the company “to the next level of automation to not only optimize the use of working capital, but also enable data-drivn business models and support the scalability of Siemens business from the treasury side,” said Siemens Group Treasurer Peter Rathgeb.
Previously, bank clients have been able to use standing orders that allow them to apply “rules” and “conditions” to payments. “Programmable Payments gives the ability to ‘program’ a more expansive set of rules on JPM Coin accounts/BDAs,” the company said.