JP Morgan is unveiling its new “You Invest” service next week. The digital investment service will be available on desktop and mobile. The goal is to give customers 100 free stock trades within the first year.
Account holders with $15,000 or more will earn 100 free trades each consecutive year. Customers whose balances fall below the threshold will pay the standard $2.95 per trade after using all of their free trades. Currently, TD Ameritrade charges $6.95 per trade and Charles Schwab charges $4.95.
You Invest appears to be, in part, a response to Robinhood, the leader in mobile trading.
Robinhood has captured 5 million users since launching commission-free trades in 2013. Available for mobile-friendly consumers, the Robinhood app allows people to buy and sell stocks on US exchanges. The fintech startup, which surpassed Etrade in total number of brokerage accounts, launched Robinhood Crypto earlier this year. That effort is designed to serve its mobile-friendly user base of Millennials who represent the largest demographic for trading cryptocurrencies.
JP Morgan’s new You Invest service will be immediately available to all of its 47 million mobile or online customers. It signifies the bank’s strategy to remain number one in the US by staying competitive with Millennials.
In addition to fintech companies like Robinhood, tech giant Amazon has shown its increasing strength and ability to target and leverage Amazon Prime members, who are also largely Millennials, in order to move into different verticals, including banking – if it decides to spin into finance services.
According to a survey by Bain & Co., more than half of all 133,000 survey respondents expect to do some banking at major tech firms over the next five years. That percentage rises to 75% among those surveyed ages 18 – 24. Among the major US tech companies, to succeed in US banking, Amazon has the best chance and has earned the most trust.
CNBC reports that based on early trials, JP Morgan’s You Invest app users are 15 years younger on average than legacy clients who engage with the bank’s financial advisors.
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In May, JP Morgan created a new position – head of Crypto-Assets Strategy & Quorum. Quorum is an enterprise-focused version of Ethereum that allows organizations to process private transactions on a permissioned blockchain.
Oliver Harris, who was appointed to the position, is tasked with helping JP Morgan navigate blockchain-based technology and explore crypto projects. He is the former head of the bank’s in-residence program for fintech startups, and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Future of AI and Automation in Financial Services.
