Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) reportedly is in talks with financial institutions that include JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) and Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF) about teaming up to offer a checking-type account to customers.
The Wall Street Journal said any potential collaboration is "in its early stages and may not come to fruition." However, a push by Amazon into financial services would not be surprising in light of its efforts to expand into areas such as health care, where it already is working with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B) to form an independent health care alliance for their employees.
The checking-like account would be aimed at younger customers and those without bank accounts, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Dan Ives, chief strategy officer and head of technology research at GBH Insights, told CNBC in an email that Amazon's underlying goal in creating a checking-type account "is to further grow its Prime membership through cross-selling into existing J.P. Morgan customers, and this could lead to more initiatives down the road."
"Amazon is in fifth gear, trying to double down on the consumer, and the finance vertical looks like the next step (through partnerships) of adding to the Amazon flywheel," Ives said in the email.
Bloomberg notes that Amazon already has a co-branded credit card with JPMorgan, and that Amazon has made other forays into the financial arena. It said Amazon Pay allows consumers to pay for products on third-party sites without reloading their credit card information. It also noted that Amazon has lent more than US$3bn to small businesses that sell on its platform since 2011, according to a research report by CB Insights earlier this year.
In late morning trading, Amazon was at US$1,058.97, up US$8.72, JPMorgan Chase was at US$113.95, up 63 US cents, and Capital One was at US$97.14, up 42 US cents .