Chase Digital Bank Account Finn Goes Nationwide

JPMorgan Chase on Thursday (June 28) launched a digital bank account for smartphone users dubbed Finn by Chase.

According to a report in Reuters, citing the company, the new bank account is targeted at young adults who want to engage in their transactions via their mobile phones and don’t want to go into a branch. To lure new banking customers to Finn, Reuters reported, JPMorgan is offering $100 to new account holders who complete 10 transactions of specific types, including sending money to another person or paying a bill. The $100 is aimed at making customers familiar with the app, Melissa Feldsher, head of Finn, told Reuters in an interview. She said that once customers see they can make deposits automatically to their savings — such as moving $2 from their checking account every time they spend $2 at Starbucks — they will want to continue to use the banking app. “This is a way for us to attract more customers by having different products that speak to different people,” Feldsher said. The new mobile bank account is being targeted at what the bank is calling “digitally-centric” people who use Apple devices. A version for Android phones is slated to come out by the end of the year, noted Reuters.

The move on the part of JPMorgan comes at a time when all the national banks are sweetening their cash incentives to lure more deposit accounts their way. According to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), some lenders are offering new customers perks of one-time payments of hundreds of dollars if they open a new account. Those perks, reported WSJ, can be buried on parts of the earnings reports that aren’t scrutinized heavily and aren’t followed closely by Wall Street. Though some have been doing this for years, the practice is growing and becoming more common. The WSJ noted that JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and SunTrust Banks offer bonuses between $150 and $500. For people with small accounts, that is a sizeable bonus.