The JPM Coin project trials commenced last year. The digital currency is now in commercial use.

An unnamed but large technology company is already using JPM Coin, JPMorgan’s (NYSE: JPM) digital currency developed in-house, for cross-border payments.

A CNBC report says the bank has now set up its digital currency and blockchain businesses inside a new unit dubbed Onyx.

Onyx has a workforce of 100 people.  Takis Georgakopoulos, the bank’s global head of wholesale payments, leads the unit.

JPM recently named Umar Farooq CEO of the Onyx unit.

Digital is now a real business for JPMorgan

“We are launching Onyx because we believe we are shifting to a period of commercialization of those technologies, moving from research and development to something that can become a real business,” Georgakopoulos told CNBC.

Cross-border payments have been long overdue for a technological overhaul. JPMorgan is one of the largest global players in this business, handling over $6 trillion daily.

In 2017, JPMorgan launched Interbank Information Network, a group comprising more than 400 banks and companies, to revamp global payments and prevent bounced transfers that cost money and lose time. The concept was to use the blockchain to operate a peer-to-peer network that would streamline cross-border payments.

The Interbank Information Network has been renamed Liink and is headed by Christine Moy.

“This is a blockchain-based, multi-party network so you have the ability to get a response from multiple different banks on the network, or for that matter tech companies,” says Moy, as reported by Coin Desk. “Enabling our Liink participants to potentially create new revenue streams, we think, is a differentiator from other offerings where a central party controls the flow.”

SWIFT under threat?

Liink may soon challenge SWIFT if there is widespread adoption of the new system. JPM has already invited members of the Liink group to build applications on the network.

Separately, the archaic system of paper checks may be disrupted by the new blockchain technology, according to Farooq. It would save 75% of the costs incurred on these payments.

Meanwhile, investors should not consider JPM Coin as money. According to PYMNTS.com, JPMorgan has clarified the coin represents U.S. dollars held in designated accounts at the bank.

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Image of e-ATMs: Chase Media assets