Actually I was surprised to see JP Morgan there. I don't watch it closely but they seem a recent addition. Their "Kapital" system is based on Cincom Smalltalk. I wouldn't speculate they are porting it. Facilitating a viable open source Smalltalk alternative may just for negotiating power with their incumbent Smalltalk.
http://www.cincom.com/pdf/CS040819-1.pdf
I met the International Product Manager for Cincom in a Smalltalk meetup once. She was complaining about the aggressive Pharo folks "badmouthing" Cincom and taking their business. One of the chip fabs previously running VW Smalltalk got taken by Pharo. I heard somewhere else that JPM were unhappy at the steep consultancy fees Cincom was charging, and the lack of VW Smalltalkers out there, but still wanted to keep things in Smalltalk. So it seems these rumours may be true if JPM has joined the Pharo Consortium.
I was wondering the same thing as I figured they already used Cincom. I know Cincom is very expensive, but surely it's negligible for JPMorgan? Maybe they feel Pharo has more momentum and have started doing some projects there to steer it where they want it to go?
