JPMorgan is on the cusp of making a sizeable equity investment in 10x Future Technologies, the fintech startup founded by former Barclays boss Antony Jenkins.
Insiders told Sky News that the giant US bank was planning to pump tens of millions of pounds into the firm, which offers a cloud-based plug-and-play platform to kickstart digital banking operations.
Nationwide Building Society in March took a £15 million stake in 10x Future Technologies, with the aim of investing in a technology backbone for its forthcoming business banking service. The cash formed part of a broader Series B funding round for 10x, which suffered a blow to its ambitions last year when CYBG acquired Virgin Money, pulling the plug on a lucrative core banking product deal.
JPMorgan's interest in the platform emerges just weeks after reports surfaced that the US bank was in the process of recruiting fintech developers in London for a top secret skunkworks project. This has fired up speculation that the bank may be looking to emulate the success of Marcus by Goldman Sachs by launching its own digital banking operation.
The UK market may provide a more hospitable climate for an online-only banking offshoot than the US, where JPmorgan recently decided to pull the shutters on Finn, the mobile-only banking offshoot aimed at millennials, just a year after its nationwide launch.