J.P. Morgan and Visa are integrating their cross-border payments services in a first step towards building a global system.

Visa’s cross-border payments product for financial institutions and corporate clients, B2B Connect, is being integrated with Confirm, the account information validation service run by J.P. Morgan’s Liink. 

J.P. Morgan has also announced that the German financial giant Deutsche Bank will be joining Confirm as a founding member. The New York-based J.P. Morgan is looking to build a consortium of banks from around the world for the Confirm service. It plans to launch Confirm in 10 countries by the end of 2022 and 30 by the end of 2023.

J.P. Morgan launched its Interbank Information Network five years ago with the aim of making cross-border payments more efficient. The project has since been rebranded as Liink and is offered through Onyx, the bank’s blockchain and payments infrastructure division.

The rise to prominence of cryptocurrencies in 2017 prompted increased interest in the blockchain technology that underlies them. Since then, central banks have speeded up the research and development of central bank digital currencies, while commercial banks have explored how blockchain can improve the global payments infrastructure. 

J.P.Morgan projects that Confirm will soon validate account data from more than two billion accounts from more than 3,500 banks. The bank says failed payments cost the global economy $118bn per year, with incorrect account information accounting for 66% of this figure. 

J.P. Morgan has also announced that German financial giant Deutsche Bank will be joining Confirm as a founding member

Confirm’s global head, Alex Littleton, said: “Confirm’s growth is heavily influenced by network effects. Naming Deutsche Bank as a founding member, while also establishing interconnectivity to Visa B2B’s blockchain, will accelerate our adoption on a global scale.”

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