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Amazon mulling current account offer with JP Morgan
Amazon's continued quest for world domination extended into retail financial services on Monday, with reports the e-commerce and technology behemoth was considering a partnership with Wall Street banks to build a current account product for US customers.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the company was in early discussions with financial institutions, including JP Morgan Chase, to launch a product aimed at an audience that was either younger or unbanked.
In the report, the Journal cited sources as claiming the talks were in their nascent stages, which would add another product category to the bookstore-turned-megacorporation, which also recently launched a checkout-free supermarket in its hometown of Seattle.
And it would have a market ready to welcome such a product, with a survey from LendEDU last week suggesting around 45% of respondents would be open to use Amazon as a primary bank account, and almost half would use a savings product offered by the firm.
The shape of such a product could be more of a layer-of-technology on top of a more traditional account offered by JP Morgan, however, with Vertical Group equity research analyst Dick Bove telling CNBC that an Amazon account could be more akin to 'Pay' products from Apple and Google.
"Apple has a relationship with a number of banks, using their payment systems, but clearly, Apple is not in the banking business."
Amazon would also be barred from making loans under US banking regulations.