JPMorgan Chase has alarmed financial technology start-ups with plans to charge them to access its customer data, a move that could endanger their business models and is seen by some as Jamie Dimon’s attempt to crush nascent competitors.
The largest US bank by assets at the end of June sent out price sheets to start-ups that have long relied on free access to bank consumer data to power other financial services. This includes data aggregators, such as Plaid, that have grown in the past decade thanks to this free data-sharing model.
The dispute highlights the interconnected nature of banks and non-bank companies in providing financial services in a digital world, and the cost of sharing the data between the two sides.