Jamie Dimon’s European retail-banking experiment is based on a solid theory. Digital lenders, with brand new IT systems and no costly physical branches, should be able to offer superior service at a much lower cost than incumbents. But JPMorgan’s Chase UK venture has so far only really proven that it can suck up deposits. That raises the stakes for a push into Germany – a notoriously overbanked market. The $820 billion U.S. lender said on Thursday that it was planning to launch its Chase consumer business in Europe’s largest economy in the second quarter of 2026. The first German product will be a savings account. It would come almost five years after its UK launch. It’s too soon to tell whether the British leg of the experiment is working. Chase had hoovered up about 23 billion pounds ($31 billion) of deposits by December 2024, partly by offering competitive interest rates. Its 27 million pounds of 2024 earnings equated to a 1% return on average equity, according to Breakingviews estimates. The caveat is that the profit numbers depend on technology expenses charged between Chase and JPMorgan, which are by nature not concrete. What’s clear is that Chase UK hasn’t cracked the lending side of the equation. Customer loans were insignificant as of December 2024, with almost all the deposit money parked in what the group’s filings call “balances held with JPMorganChase undertakings”. According to a person familiar with the matter, that means the funds are managed centrally by the wider group, with a lot of the cash landing at the Bank of England. Over time, Chase UK plans to build out its credit card business and add other products like mortgages. But for now, it seems content to stay below Britain’s regulatory “ringfencing” threshold of 35 billion pounds of deposits, past which lenders must formally separate consumer from riskier divisions. The upshot is that Dimon’s German retail bankers can’t necessarily look to Britain as an example of how to make money. And they’re competing in a fierce local market, where state-backed lenders can often offer low-rate loans. Admittedly, Dutch group ING’s digital-focused Teutonic business offers a handy template. Its German retail division will generate over 1 billion euros of earnings next year, according to analysts’ estimates gathered by Visible Alpha, implying a juicy net margin of more than 30% of revenue. That may explain why JPMorgan recently hired the person who ran it. The good news is that Dimon’s bank can easily stomach the coming losses from its German expansion. Chase UK’s red ink peaked at about 150 million pounds in 2022 – a year in which the parent group’s bottom line was $38 billion. That’s the ultimate luxury for JPMorgan: not many other groups can afford to launch a new experiment before proving the success of the first.
JPMorgan to launch digital retail bank in Germany in 2026 even though Chase UK venture has so far only really proven that it can suck up deposits but has not cracked the lending side of the equation
Jamie Dimon’s European retail-banking experiment is based on a solid theory. Digital lenders, with brand new IT systems and no costly physical branches, should be able to offer superior service at a much lower cost than incumbents. But JPMorgan’s Chase UK venture has so far only really proven that it can suck up deposits. That raises the stakes for a push into Germany – a notoriously overbanked market. The $820 billion U.S. lender said on Thursday that it was planning to launch its Chase consumer business in Europe’s largest economy in the second quarter of 2026. The first German product will be a savings account. It would come almost five years after its UK launch. It’s too soon to tell whether the British leg of the experiment is working. Chase had hoovered up about 23 billion pounds ($31 billion) of deposits by December 2024, partly by offering competitive interest rates. Its 27 million pounds of 2024 earnings equated to a 1% return on average equity, according to Breakingviews estimates. The caveat is that the profit numbers depend on technology expenses charged between Chase and JPMorgan, which are by nature not concrete. What’s clear is that Chase UK hasn’t cracked the lending side of the equation. Customer loans were insignificant as of December 2024, with almost all the deposit money parked in what the group’s filings call “balances held with JPMorganChase undertakings”. According to a person familiar with the matter, that means the funds are managed centrally by the wider group, with a lot of the cash landing at the Bank of England. Over time, Chase UK plans to build out its credit card business and add other products like mortgages. But for now, it seems content to stay below Britain’s regulatory “ringfencing” threshold of 35 billion pounds of deposits, past which lenders must formally separate consumer from riskier divisions. The upshot is that Dimon’s German retail bankers can’t necessarily look to Britain as an example of how to make money. And they’re competing in a fierce local market, where state-backed lenders can often offer low-rate loans. Admittedly, Dutch group ING’s digital-focused Teutonic business offers a handy template. Its German retail division will generate over 1 billion euros of earnings next year, according to analysts’ estimates gathered by Visible Alpha, implying a juicy net margin of more than 30% of revenue. That may explain why JPMorgan recently hired the person who ran it. The good news is that Dimon’s bank can easily stomach the coming losses from its German expansion. Chase UK’s red ink peaked at about 150 million pounds in 2022 – a year in which the parent group’s bottom line was $38 billion. That’s the ultimate luxury for JPMorgan: not many other groups can afford to launch a new experiment before proving the success of the first.
Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank launch new alternative investments program to Ultra-High-Net-Worth Clients, to build an expanded allocation to alternatives as part of a diversified portfolio
Merrill Wealth Management and Bank of America Private Bank today announced the launch of the Alts Expanded Access Program, a new private market program available to ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients with a net worth of $50 million or more. Available in fall 2025, the program is designed to complement the investment options available through Merrill’s and Bank of America Private Bank’s core Alternative Investments platform, offering qualified investors avenues to build an expanded allocation to alternatives as part of a diversified portfolio. “Traditionally, private market alternatives were the domain of institutional investors, but as wealth building needs have evolved, we’re seeing more clients seek non-traditional investments, fueled by market changes and the desire to diversify,” said Mark Sutterlin, head of alternative investments for Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank. Key Features of the Alts Expanded Access Program: Selective access: These funds are not broadly distributed and provide access to specialized opportunities in emerging themes, niche strategies and evolving sectors. Supported recommendation: Clients’ advisor or team helps them understand the process and provides them with access to fund manager materials. Client-directed: Clients conduct due diligence, make investment decisions, and invest directly with fund managers. Insights from the 2024 Bank of America Private Bank Study of Wealthy Americans underscore the growing interest in alternatives, particularly among young HNW investors: Alternatives comprise 17% of their current portfolio allocations. 93% plan to increase their allocate to alternatives in the coming years. “This program is part of our broader commitment to meet the evolving needs of UHNW clients with increasingly complex financial goals,” added Sutterlin. The new offering builds on the successful launch of other UHNW capabilities, such as Premium Access Strategies, a dual-contract investment advisory program that has grown to over $60 billion in client assets in under three years.
JPMorgan Chase’s ‘small bites’ approach to expansion– opening two or three branches at a time in a state, is paying off “by ensuring it’s keeping customers top of mind and making tweaks if needed”
JPMorgan Chase is taking a bit-by-bit approach with its branch expansion plans in certain regions of the country, as it continues its quest of capturing 15% of U.S. consumer deposits. Being too aggressive with any strategy carries inherent risk, said Billy Botsakos, JPMorgan Chase’s consumer banking lead for the Southeast. “When we look at stuff, let’s make sure that we’re biting it off in small bites,” he said. With branch openings, that means the biggest U.S. bank won’t open 50 locations in a state all at once, but rather two or three at a time, to ensure it’s keeping customers top of mind and making tweaks if needed, he said. The bank has about 5,000 branches spread across the lower 48 states, it said, adding that nearly 1 million clients a day visit the bank’s branches. The bank is spending billions of dollars to open about 500 branches – around Boston, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and the Washington, D.C., area – and hire 3,500 employees by early 2027.
The lender is intent on shortening drive times to branches and being easily accessible to clients, chasing a goal of being within an hour’s drive of 75% of its U.S. customers, Botsakos said. Today, that figure is 68%. To execute its strategy around that drive time goal and increase convenience for clients, “we have to go in places that we’re currently not,” Botsakos said. That includes the bank setting up shop in communities and locations “that our clients are asking us for, that our research is telling us that we need to be in, that our own employees are telling us that customers are asking for,” he said. Ongoing expansion efforts there are “representative of where we are in the rest of the country,” he said. Those include the west side of Charlotte, where the bank has no presence. Elsewhere in North Carolina, Chase has opened branches in Winston-Salem and has plans for more there, as well as in nearby Greensboro. Chase also seeks to add more in Raleigh and its suburbs, as well as in the Wilmington area on the state’s coast. In South Carolina, Botsakos flagged the outskirts of Myrtle Beach, where the bank has a presence already, and in Hilton Head and its surrounding area, where it doesn’t yet. The lender is gunning to both keep existing customers after they’ve moved and acquire new customers in those fresh locations, he said. In Charlotte, for example, it’s become apparent many customers have come from regions with existing Chase locations, so the brand “doesn’t necessarily need a whole lot of explanation,” he noted. “In many cases, we’re not necessarily new to that client, we’re just new to the area,” he said. The Southeast has been an area of particular focus for top-20 bank expansion, as population and business growth in the region soars.
JPMorganChase will use cash flow underwriting and credit bureau data from other countries in some credit decisions
JPMorganChase will use cash flow underwriting and credit bureau data from other countries in some credit decisions, the bank and technology partner Nova Credit said Wednesday. The New York bank, which has 80 million customers and an $18 billion technology budget, will soon deploy Nova Credit’s Cash Atlas software, which automates cash flow underwriting. The software lets banks evaluate a potential borrower’s creditworthiness by analyzing how that person has been managing the money in their bank accounts, replacing or augmenting more traditional criteria like FICO scores and credit bureau reports. Cash Atlas can also be used to monitor account activity for signs of trouble or an opportunity to upgrade a product. JPMorganChase also plans to start using Credit Passport, another product from Nova Credit that translates credit bureau data from 20 other countries to information a U.S. bank can use to determine the creditworthiness of people who have recently come to this country on work visas, student visas, family visas or other arrangements. “Chase is committed to being the bank for all and tools like Cash Atlas and Credit Passport will help with this mission by giving us a more comprehensive view into each individual and their credit needs,” said Chris Reagan, president of Chase Branded Cards, in a statement. “With this new data source, we can better assess credit risk, make more informed lending decisions, and approve customers with right-sized lines of credit.”Cash Atlas’ cash flow analytics aim to paint a picture of a consumer’s financial health through trended data on income, expenses and assets. Other vendors, including Prism Data, Experian and Plaid also provide cash flow analytics to banks to help with credit decisions. Some AI underwriting software providers, including Cascading AI, Provenir and Ocrolus, offer cash flow analytics along with other credit variables. Traditional loan underwriting systems rely heavily on FICO scores and a few other criteria like debt-to-income ratio. These tend to decline or offer only high-priced credit to young people, immigrants, people who haven’t borrowed in the past and people who have had temporary setbacks through no fault of their own, for instance due to a medical emergency. Cash flow underwriting is not a new concept, but it has been gaining momentum. “Traditional credit evaluation methods, while historically reliable, struggle to capture the complete financial picture of modern consumers, particularly given the rise of nontraditional income sources and alternative credit products,” wrote Stewart Watterson, a strategic advisor in the retail banking and payments practice at Datos Insights, in his March report on cash flow underwriting. Datos’ survey of 150 U.S. consumer lenders found that 58% are less confident about making consumer lending decisions based on traditional credit files and scores than they were a year ago. A study FinRegLab published in June found that cash flow data can help lenders underwrite small businesses more accurately, particularly when evaluating early stage companies and financially constrained entrepreneurs whom lenders consider higher risk. The report, Sharpening the Focus: Using Cash-Flow Data to Underwrite Financially Constrained Businesses, analyzed 38,000 small-business loans originated by two unnamed fintech lenders between February 2015 and January 2024. The analysis found that cash flow variables derived from bank account data provided a stronger and more accurate basis for predicting loan performance than business owners’ personal credit scores alone — especially for businesses that are relatively new or have owners with low credit scores. Cash Atlas manages the gathering of bank account data through data aggregators like Plaid, MX, Akoya and Finicity to provide a broad view of a potential borrower’s bank account activity. It provides credit risk analytics in a consumer report format. It can also produce compliance reports, for instance to meet Fair Credit Reporting Act requirements. “We believe that long term, cash flow underwriting is going to supplement and augment credit processes across all consumer products in America,” Collin Galster, chief operating officer of Nova Credit, told American Banker. “We think bureau data and the many other data sources that are used in underwriting still have an important role to play in the ecosystem. And cash flow data is a powerful and orthogonal data source that allows lenders to reach a lot more consumers and lend to them responsibly.” The time frame of the bank account data Cash Atlas will analyze, also known as the look-back window, is configurable and can range from three to 24 months’ worth, Galster said. “Smaller ticket items may not require as much look-back data,” he said. “And different populations may require different look-back windows, too.” For instance, students typically have irregular cash flows, so a 12-month window makes sense for them. The mindset behind traditional credit decisions, and the basic idea behind the FICO score, is that the best way to predict whether a consumer will be able to repay a loan is to look at whether they have repaid loans in the past. “I would say that it’s not the complete story,” Galster said. “It’s true that someone’s demonstrated ability to have repaid loans in the past is an important data point in predicting their future likelihood to repay. But it can miss certain information disproportionately for certain populations, and the ways in which it misses are artifacts of the way our system’s set up.” Cash flow underwriting provides a much deeper look into someone’s financial health, because “you’re seeing their ability to manage their finances across all of their inflows and outflows, their expenditures, including debt repayments, but also discretionary spend, non-discretionary spend and their changing situation,” he said. Galster pointed out that consumer lenders sometimes provide grace periods, forbearance and other accommodations that may not show up in a credit report for 90 days or more. “With cash flow data, you’re seeing the actual transactions, and therefore can make judgments about someone’s ability and capacity to manage credit in real time, as opposed to having this lagging indicator,” he said.
BNY to launch free training in cybersecurity, AI, data analytics, corporate finance and strategic planning to “support small community bank executives in fostering local economies”
The $439 billion-asset Bank of New York Mellon plans to offer free technical training to 1,000 community bank executives as part of a wider effort aimed at boosting financial education among employees of banks and nonprofits. BNY unveiled the initiative Wednesday. For bankers, the specialized instruction will cover a range of topics, including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, data analytics, corporate finance and strategic planning. BNY conceived of the program in-house, using input it gathered from a survey of community banks last September. “Our capacity-building and training initiative was developed internally because we recognize the pivotal role small community banks play in fostering local economies,” Shofiur Razzaque, BNY’s head of community banking and solutions, wrote in an email to American Banker. “These banks are integral to the communities they serve. Our goal is to find ways to support and strengthen them.” BNY is limiting eligibility to bankers from institutions with less than $10 billion of assets. The New York-based custody bank will deliver the training remotely and in sessions led by the company’s senior leaders. It also plans to hold panel events on key topics, according to Razzaque. Participants will be permitted to access the training sessions of their choice, rather than adhere to a formal class structure. BNY plans to reach out to bankers through their CEOs, trade groups and state bankers associations. It will also invite them to participate directly, Razzaque stated in the email.
Brand visibility shifts to “answer engines” which needs to produce expert, end‑to‑end, dated guidance with named authors and citations; as generic AI fluff loses Google steps up content provenance via SynthID
With AI answer engines, there are new standards required to achieve online visibility. This creates a unique window of opportunity for companies to redefine their digital strategy, but it’s going to close fast. The key to visibility in this new era is authenticity, quality and expert value, which SearchEngineLand claims can be achieved using their CRAFT framework. Content must be authentic and showcase real expertise, not hallucinated knowledge. Generic, AI-generated fluff without won’t achieve meaningful visibility in the new search ecosystem. AI answer engines are defining new visibility standards by becoming increasingly sophisticated at detecting and rewarding genuine expertise. This is so critical to their ranking that Google recently created the SynthID to determine what content was created by their AI systems. Outside of being featured in the press, you can make your content more valuable to answer engines if you write using the CASH framework. 1) Conversational Authority: Structure content as comprehensive answers to specific questions, not keyword-focused pages. Instead of “plumbing services,” create “What should I do when my basement floods in the middle of the night. and I can’t reach the main water shutoff?” 2) Answer Completeness: Provide end-to-end information that eliminates follow-up searches. AI engines reward content that fully resolves user queries in one interaction, including next steps, costs, timelines and potential complications. 3) Source Expertise: Demonstrate current, up-to-date knowledge with specific dates, recent examples and evolving industry standards. Answer engines prioritize content that shows active expertise over static information. 4) Human Attribution: Clearly identify the human expertise behind the answers with author credentials, experience details and specific qualifications. AI engines increasingly value content that can be traced to verified experts rather than anonymous sources.
The agentic web needs a “HTTPS‑for‑agents”: decentralized infrastructure, a protocol‑level trust layer, and verified AI agents to ensure consensus, provenance and auditability at scale
As we move beyond basic automation, we need systems rooted in verifiability and accountability. Just like the web needed HTTPS, the agentic web needs a trusted network. To navigate the agentic era, we need a foundation built on three core layers: Decentralized infrastructure: Eliminates single points of control, ensuring resilience, scalability but most importantly sustainability, beyond relying on single private entities to run the entire stack. A trust layer: Embeds verifiability, identity and consensus at the protocol level, enabling trusted transactions across jurisdictions and systems. Verified, reliable AI agents: Enforces provenance, attestations and accountability, ensuring systems remain auditable and enabling these agents to act on our behalf. Decentralized networks must anchor this stack. Agents need systems fast enough to handle thousands of transactions per second, identity frameworks that work across borders and logic that allows them to collaborate and work together, not just swap data. To operate in shared environments, agents need three things: Consensus (agree on what actually happened); Provenance (identify who initiated or influenced it and who approved it); Auditability (trace every step with ease); Without these, agents can behave unpredictably across disconnected systems. And since they’re always on, they must be sustainable and trusted by design. To meet this challenge, enterprises must build on systems that are transparent, auditable and resilient. Policymakers must back open source networks as the backbone of trusted AI. And ecosystem leaders and builders must design trust into the foundation, not bolt it on later.
CFOs adopt “generative finance” to shift from backward‑looking data compilation to forward‑thinking strategic modeling; creating tailored forecasts that simulate infinite business evolution possibilities.
Generative AI is introducing a whole new paradigm in the form of Generative Finance. With it you have a forward-looking capability that takes you from reporting on what happened to a model that more strategically considers what could happen next. It helps you refocus on the windshield, simulating the infinite possible ways your business can evolve. It means you can finally begin looking ahead, testing strategies for what happens next, and making assumptions and decisions based on a more complete picture of everything ahead of you. The shift from hindsight to foresight equips your organization with an edge in strategic thinking. It doesn’t just organize the numbers you have; it intelligently creates new data to show you what’s possible. It learns the unique patterns and rhythms of your specific business from your own data. It lets you explore hundreds of potential outcomes for any decision you’re considering. It presents a range of probable futures, not just a single, rigid prediction. It continually refines its understanding, getting smarter and more accurate over time. With generative finance, you can get detailed, data-supported answers in minutes, not months. When you adopt generative finance, your FP&A professionals are freed from the tedious work of manual data entry and report building. They can stop spending their time compiling spreadsheets and start investing their time in analysis and strategy. They become true business partners who can interpret complex scenarios, stress-test business plans, and provide the insightful guidance your leadership team needs to make better decisions. The real power of this technology is unlocked when it is explicitly trained on your company’s own data. By learning from your unique financial history, sales cycles, and operational details, the AI becomes a true expert on your business. This deep customization is what makes its forecasts and scenarios so reliable. The insights you get from a tailored generative finance model are directly relevant and immediately actionable because they are rooted in your reality.
Advanced geothermal gains steam with major supplier deals, targeting 2/3 of data center demand by 2030 through enhanced drilling and fractured‑rock pressure systems
Geothermal companies are announcing deals that promise to pave the way for broader deployment of their technology. Fervo Energy has picked a supplier for key parts of its power plants, signaling that the second phase of the Cape Station project in Utah was moving full steam ahead. The startup said that Baker Hughes, the major oil field services and energy technology company, would design and deliver five steam turbines. Altogether, they’ll generate 300 megawatts of electricity 24/7, enough to power around 180,000 homes. The company has adapted directional drilling techniques used by the oil and gas industry to tap rocks nearly 16,000 feet below the surface. At that depth, temperatures are expected to maintain a steady 520˚ F. Meanwhile, fellow startup Sage Geosystems signed an agreement with geothermal developer Ormat Technologies to deploy its technology at one of Ormat’s existing power plants. If all goes as planned, Ormat will license Sage’s “Pressure Geothermal” technology, which injects water into fractured rock under pressure, where it absorbs heat. When the water returns to the surface, Sage harvests both the heat and pressure from it, using both to spin turbines to generate electricity. Because geothermal power plants generate heat around the clock, they’ve attracted the interest of data center developers. A recent analysis said that the technology could generate enough electricity to supply nearly two-thirds of data center demand by 2030.