One of the first banks to become involved in the blockchain space, German online bank Fidor has long been quiet about the shifts in its tech strategy even as more financial incumbents have followed in its footsteps through investments and partnerships.
Just how early was Fidor? While many banks continue to investigate the technology through proofs-of-concept and consortium efforts, Fidor integrated Ripple during the bitcoin craze of early 2014, even going so far as to attempt to build a bitcoin bank with exchange partner Kraken that never materialized.
Despite these investigations, the online bank has largely remained absent from major consortium efforts, choosing instead to focus on development.
"We’re more hands-on and we like to develop something and see how it works … We’re interested but we’re just not interested in sitting down and talking," Patrick Gruban, CIO of Fidor TecS , told CoinDesk.
The interview found Gruban opening up about the company’s evolving blockchain strategy, and how Fidor TecS, its digital banking division, is experimenting with blockchain services. In particular, Gruban honed in on a recent project in which Fidor sought to replicate the core banking services its customers use today.
Gruban told CoinDesk: "We have a lot of examples out there of people doing payments on the blockchain, of people doing exchanges and markets, but customers still come to us saying we have a fast software but I still need a traditional core banking system. The idea was to ask, ‘Is it possible to use these ledger systems in that way?’" Gruban said he foresees permissioned blockchain-based systems replacing traditional low-level banking services, given that current systems cost banks in the tens of millions of dollars annually to maintain.
Distributed ledgers, he suggested, could come to oversee customer accounts, loans and certificates of deposit, with different banks, data centers and regulators sharing information […]
