JPMorgan Clashes With Partly Owned Greek Fintech

It’s been just 12 months since JPMorgan Chase spent $800 million to buy 49% of Greek fintech startup Viva Wallet, in an effort to expand the bank’s reach into the small business payments sector across Europe. But already the two companies appear to have fallen out.

Two of JPMorgan’s three representatives on Viva’s board have quit in recent weeks, just a few months after joining the board. Viva, which is 51% controlled by its founder and CEO, Haris Karonis, ignored the bank’s requests for the appointment of two replacements and instead appointed Viva’s chief financial officer and a former investor to take the two seats. Viva also proposed that JPMorgan’s third representative be removed from the board, although Karonis appears to have backed off from that idea later, as he didn’t vote to approve it at a shareholder meeting, filings show.