Make that a total of 25 banks that are now onboard the R3- sponsored blockchain trading platform.
Japan’s Mizuho Bank, Italy’s UniCredit and Stockholm-based Nordea have joined a global consortium of banks led by financial tech firm R3 that is working on a framework for using blockchain technology in markets, according to R3 and first reported by Reuters.
The addition of the three banks brings R3’s stable of participants to 25 now.
Blockchain is the technology that supports the trading of bitcoin, a non-hard web-based so-called cryptocurrency that is hoped to be the next generation of payment for trading and commerce.
Other banks that have recently come include : Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, Morgan Stanley and Societe Generale SA.
R3 originally had nine banks includingBarclays Plc,Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. as partners.
Headed by former ICAP executive David Rutter, R3 is working with banks to examine how so-called distributed ledger technology can be applied to finance. The software innovation is what allows bitcoin to trade around the world without the involvement of a bank or centralized third party.
The addition of this new group of banks demonstrates widespread support for innovative distributed ledger solutions across the global financial services community, and were delighted to have them on board, Rutter said in the statement. The banks will contribute internal resources to help design and test the technology, according to the statement.
Wall Street is becoming enamored with the potential for blockchain to transform the way derivatives, bonds, loans and other asset classes work, dramatically simplifying the process of tracking ownership and accelerating the transfer of assets from one person to another. To work, however, the banks, hedge funds and asset managers that comprise the main players in a given financial market need to be using the same network.
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