Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Pressure Groups: "JPMorgan Chase & Co Launches Think Tank: The JPMorgan Chase Institute"

From the International Business Times:
JPMorgan Chase & Co. would like the world to know it’s not just in the business of making loans, taking deposits and navigating the waters of high finance. With the launch Thursday of the JPMorgan Chase Institute, the bank adds a new facet to its brand: think tank. 

The institute aims to use real-time big-data analytics for the benefit of policymakers, businesses and the wider public. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has said the think tank is out to “educate the world.”

As its inaugural report’s conclusions show, perhaps unsurprisingly, the greater good might just be served through Chase’s own banking products.

The institute isn't your typical corporate stab at social responsibility. It has access to a uniquely vast trove of customer data: Chase’s checking and savings accounts. Moored to the largest American bank by assets, the think tank says it can put "the broad spectrum of data within the firm to use for the public good.”
...the recommendations outlined at the end of the report might sound familiar to Chase employees, some of whom contributed to the research.
According to the authors, solutions could include “new savings, insurance and credit products,” as well as more technical banking tools -- many of which Chase already offers. 
The institute's opening comes as major financial institutions try to burnish public reputations still damaged from the fallout of the financial crisis and subsequent scandals. Just a day before the JPMorgan Chase Institute announced itself to the world, the bank pleaded guilty, with several other firms, to criminal antitrust violations related to foreign exchange rigging....MORE