JPMorgan Chase has acquired healthcare payments company InstaMed for $500 million, the bank’s largest acquisition since financial-crisis era buyouts of Bear Stearns and the assets of Washington Mutual.
The bank on Friday said it had agreed to pay $500 million for the Philadelphia-based company, which has roughly 300 employees and processed $94 billion in transactions last year, according to a report from CNBC’s Hugh Son.
The deal helps expand JPMorgan’s already vast corporate payments infrastructure. The bank already moves some $6 trillion for companies around the world every day.
“We’ve made significant investments in our Wholesale Payments business over the years and this acquisition will give us a unique advantage in one of the fastest growing sectors,” Takis Georgakopoulos, the global head of wholesale payments, said in a statement announcing the deal.
JPMorgan has ambitions to dominate the global payments business — a $300 billion opportunity — Georgakopoulos recently told Credit Suisse.
Scale is crucial in that business, and InstaMed, which automates billing across the spectrum of healthcare companies, will bolster that effort as well as provide access to the tech company’s world of existing clients and relationships.
Acquisitions have been rare at JPMorgan since the global economic collapse, when it bought Bear Stearns and assets of Washington Mutual. The company bought PayPal competitor WePay in 2017, but has more commonly invested in or partnered with tech startups.
It’s the second major big-bank acquisition this week. Rival Goldman Sachs on Thursday agreed to pay $750 million in cash to buy United Capital, an investment adviser with 220 wealth managers and $25 billion in assets under management — Goldman’s largest deal since 2000.
