The Bank of Montreal, Caixabank, Erste Bank and Commerzbank join the Batavia blockchain project; the project was launched by UBS and IBM last year; Batavia looks to transform the trade finance industry; Marie Wieck, general manager of the blockchain team at IBM, tells the FT, “there is now a shift from technology projects to more of what I’d call ecosystem projects like this one.” Source.
The shared platform uses distributed ledger technology and focuses on domestic and cross-border commerce; the consortium of banks includes Deutsche Bank, HSBC, KBC, Natixis, Rabobank, Societe Generale, UniCredit Banco Santander; you can use the platform from any connected device for managing, tracking and securing trade transactions. Source.
Business Insider takes a look at a growing trend in fintech as companies look to offer blockchain technology as a service; companies offering this already include Amazon AWS, IBM, Microsoft Azure and R3 Corda; this trend is seen as something that will only increase in the coming years as more adoption of this technology occurs in financial services and beyond. Source.
JPMorgan Chase and Barclays have joined IBM’s quantum computing network as they look to use the technology to assess risk and stay secure; Barclays is beginning to test potential uses and JPMorgan Chase is looking to leverage quantum computing for trading, portfolio optimization and risk analysis; there is a lot happening in quantum computing these days as big tech firms look to master the technology seen as potentially 100,000 times faster than classic computers; while there are clear benefits to quantum computing banks are also looking at protecting themselves from the cyber threat that hackers could exploit using the same technology. Source.
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IBM announced a partnership with Stellar.org and KlickEx Group to help small businesses in underdeveloped countries participate in global trade; the partnership will focus on financial transactions across borders and currencies; this will allow businesses in these areas to get access to IBM’s scale and bank partnership network. Source.
The partnership between IBM and Zelle is meant to accelerate and simplify payments through real time processing; they also will help to enable same day deposits, bill pay, less fees and seamless cash flow; Zelle is now working with over 20 banks and plans to reach 85 million consumers by end of year. Source.
The real time payments network Zelle has added new tech partners to their growing network; partners include ACI Worldwide, CGI, D3 Banking Technology and IBM; the new partners will help to accelerate technology, reduce risk and control costs for Zelle as their payments network grows over time. Source.
IBM has joined the non-profit Sovrin Foundation which is looking to build a global decentralized identity system with blockchain technology; IBM will be a founding steward of the foundation and will be providing hardware, security and network capacity to further their cause. Source
We often hear about all of the applications of blockchain technology in financial services, but there are very few solutions...