JP Morgan is joining Cartes Bancaires (CB), enabling its merchant clients to process card payments via the French network rather than Visa or Mastercard.
The US bank says it will offer clients access to the CB network by the end of the year as it seeks to "provide competitive transaction costs and leading local processing performance" for debit and credit card transactions, skirting more expenaive products from Visa and Mastercard.
JPMorgan has become the first American "principal member" of CB, joining a 12-member governance body that includes all the big French banks, including BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, as well as HSBC.
Created in 1984, by 2022 CB had 76 million cards in circulation and processed 15 billion transactions worth €685 billion.
Shahrokh Moinian, head, Emea Payments, JP Morgan, says: "The European payments landscape is rapidly evolving and our principal membership positions us perfectly to provide future innovations and efficiencies to our clients."
Philippe Laulanie, CEO, CB, adds: "The road that now opens before us will lead us to numerous projects, which will bring real added value to the entire CB community."