BMW and JPM Score First with Onchain FX for Treasury

Car maker BMW has signed up with JP Morgan’s digital asset group, Kynexis Digital Payments, to deploy onchain, programmable payments for its EUR and USD obligations and treasury.

While Siemens and B2C2 were added earlier this year to Kynexis, this is the first time that the bank has enabled FX on its private, permissioned blockchain for making onchain payments.

The decision to move from traditional FX markets into the world of digital assets by BMW, using predefined and fully automated instructions signals a step change for corporate treasury, the firms say.

Stablecoins have been gaining ground in treasury applications as they grow their share in cross-border payments across the board, with long-lasting implications for the foreign exchange industry where corporate have been the bread and butter for many banks offering currency-related services.

BMW’s move is a major step in large, listed companies going public with their efforts to deploy stablecoins, and in this case JP Morgan’s coin and onchain rails, for paying suppliers, moving funds across subsidiaries and broader treasury applications. The first transaction involved automated balance checks, conditional auto-deposits and near-real time FX transactions and transfers between the company’s blockchain deposit accounts located in Frankfurt and New York.

The process was completed outside traditional settlement windows and without manual intervention, allowing BMW to optimise liquidity and achieve near-instant, multi-currency cross-border payments based on pre-set conditions.

“We implement a stringent roadmap for real-time treasury on the basis of blockchain technology and other technological innovation developments,” says Stefan Richmann, head of BMW Group Treasury. “The very first fully automated and programmable payment represents a leap forward for us and will allow us to make payment processes faster and more seamless.”