The blockchain consortium of international banking institutions now has a new member in the form of Ping An Financial Services Group. By announcing its inclusion into the consortium, Ping An has become the first financial institution from China to explore the use of blockchain technology in collaboration with other international banking majors, led by the New York-based R3 blockchain based fintech solutions company.
With the inclusion of Ping An, the total number of institutions in the consortium now stands at 44. The consortium is involved in creating groundbreaking distributed and shared ledger based commercial applications which can revolutionize the operations of the banking sector across the world. These applications are being developed on the latest financial distributed ledger Corda , launched recently by R3.
The blockchain technology, originally created as a decentralized ledger for the Bitcoin network to record and confirm all transactions happening on the platform has grown beyond its initially intended purpose. The decentralized property of the digital currency combined with immutability and security has found applications in various industries. The banking and financial sector is one such industry which is extensively involved in research and development of the technology for adoption. The international blockchain consortium of banking institutions intends to use Corda, the custom blockchain created by R3 as an alternative to the conventional SWIFT network for fund transfers. By connecting various branches to the Corda network, banks will be able to transfer funds between branches spread across the world in no time at a fraction of the cost.
On the other hand, the increased popularity of bitcoin as an alternative to traditional banks and financial instruments is disrupting the economic system. If banks fail to innovate, then they will be left redundant. In order to counter the rising threat from the digital currencies to their traditional business model, […]
