In a bid to join the lending market, Chase UK, which was introduced in 2021 by J.P. Morgan as the financial institution aimed to scale the UK’s banking space, introduced its first credit card offering to consumers across the region. When it was initially launched, Chase UK provided only current accounts with a rewards programme before including savings and investment products. As of the announcement, the digital-only bank delivers a credit card to an initial pool of 25,000 UK customers, with the move coming after a testing period with its employees.
The launch comes after the agreement of Chase, Revolut, and Modulr to join the 159 short-code phone service that enables individuals in the UK to directly call their bank when worried about potential scams. By entering the phone service, the financial institutions’ customers were set to be able to efficiently connect with the bank when they received a suspect call on financial matters.
Back in September 2024, J.P. Morgan began internally testing the new credit card as part of its development strategy in the UK. The offering was set to join investment products from JPMorgan’s digital wealth manager Nutmeg on its UK retail app, with the latter attracting over 200,000 customers.
Moreover, the announcement follows J.P. Morgan’s strategy to expand its services internationally in retail banking, with the bank working towards competing with local financial institutions outside of the US. In addition, the bank is planning to scale its retail lending to Europe, however, it has not yet committed to a launch date. When it comes to Chase, the digital bank was supported by a UK Government decision to increase its ringfencing threshold by GBP 10 billion, which is set to enable it to collect GBP 35 billion of customer deposits before having to split retail operations from riskier divisions.
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