Amazon is reportedly in talks with American banking giant JPMorgan Chase to discuss a partnership which could see the retailer offer bank accounts to customers.
According to the Financial Times, Amazon is considering launching a checking account-like product amid its latest push to disrupt industries dominated by traditional institutions.
Both companies declined to comment on the plans and talks are said to still be in the exploratory stages.
They are also not exclusive to JPMorgan Chase, with reports emerging from the Wall Street Journal that Amazon may also be linked to Capital One.
“Amazon is one example of a big tech company… thinking about finance as not just a feature to help drive the purchase of goods on their retail platform, but perhaps… as a core business,” online lending platform CommonBond’s chief executive David Klein told the Financial Times.
“Data and finance work really well together, and if you have technology to learn quickly from it and then apply it that could be very attractive… whether they want to become a financial company in themselves or whether they want to monetise it with financial companies.”
Amazon already offers loans to small businesses on its marketplace platform, announcing that it had originated around $3 billion (£2.12 billion) since 2011.
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