The bank has spent the last year developing an e-wallet tailored for companies such as Airbnb, Lyft Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. that it says could help online marketplaces and companies in the gig economy defend against getting cut out of the businesses they helped create. In the process, they’ll look a little more like banks.
The JPMorgan product would give tech companies the ability to provide millions of customers virtual bank accounts and to offer perks such as car loans or discounts on home rentals to those who keep money stashed there. The more customers use their virtual accounts to pay for services, the less the companies would have to spend on payment-processing fees to third parties such as JPMorgan.
