JPMorgan went on a shopping spree in 2021 to secure its present leadership far into the future. This was at the same time as its already large share of US deposits – driven even higher by savers’ flight to safety in the pandemic – prevents it from buying banks in its home market.
Among 30 or so bolt-on deals, it acquired OpenInvest in June. OpenInvest is an environmental, social, governance (ESG) investment management products and impact reporting services company.
In September, JPMorgan took a 75% stake in the payments platform of Volkswagen Financial Services, which provides purchase and lease finance as well as in-vehicle mobile payments for subscriptions for parts, for entertainment, parking, refuelling and generally buying stuff from connected vehicles. It is a new and growing business that fits with a bank positioning itself at the cutting edge in payments technology.
![Jeremy Barnum_400.jpg](https://assets.euromoneydigital.com/dims4/default/1a2ec50/2147483647/strip/true/crop/400x400+0+0/resize/800x800!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Feuromoney-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff8%2F56%2Ff60216fe4229aea6a3bbb79129df%2Fjeremy-barnum-400.jpg)
Also in June, JP Morgan took a 40% stake in C6, the Brazilian full-service digital bank, and purchased UK wealth management platform Nutmeg.