Italian Banking Association Further Tests Interbank Blockchain System Powered by R3 Corda

Published at: Feb. 13, 2019

The Italian Banking Association (ABI) is now testing a blockchain interbank solution based on blockchain consortium R3’s open-source distributed ledger platform Corda, fintech news outlet FinExtra reports on Wednesday, Feb. 13.

The ABI states that the platform has been developed together with its technical partners — R3, Japanese IT firm NTT Data and Italian ICT company Sia. The project, dubbed “Spunta,” is reportedly now being tested by 18 banks that represent 78 percent of the Italian banking sector by number of employees.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, the blockchain-powered interbank system by the ABI successfully passed the initial phase of testing in October 2018, with the participation of 14 local banks.

According to the association, the project is now in its pre-production phase and it will be launched for a focus group after a number of initial tests. Furthermore, the developers will test the platform’s stability by generating transactions volumes over a period of 365 days.

At the same time, the ABI and its partners are developing additional updates that will be tested by pilot banks, reconstructing the production processes of the whole Italian banking sector, the association notes.

The Italian parliament has recently passed a bill that defines distributed ledger technologies (DLT) and blockchain, as well as the technical criteria that smart contracts will have to comply with in order to have legal validity. Maria Laura Mantovani, a member of the Italian Parliament, told Cointelegraph Italy that a favorable use case for blockchain is its application in online voting.

In December 2018, Italy joined six other European countries (Malta, France, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and Greece) who agreed to promote the use of the DLT in the region. The participating governments explained that it can be a significant innovation for southern EU economies.

R3’s Corda is frequently used by major financial companies. For instance, in late 2018, German banking and financial services company Commerzbank, French corporate and investment bank Natixis and Dutch financial services firm Rabobank completed a live commercial paper transaction based on this blockchain platform.

More recently, Japanese financial services company SBI Holdings officially announced a joint agreement with R3 to expand their business in Asia.

Tags
Blockchain
Banks
Italy
Corda
R3
Related Posts
Italian Banking Association Completes First Test of Blockchain-Based Interbank System
The Italian Banking Association (ABI) has revealed they successfully passed the initial phase of testing their blockchain-powered interbank system, Italian financial media outlet Ansa reported September 29. By applying distributed ledger technology (DLT), the group of 14 Italian banks is planning to improve interbanking processes. Specifically, the association intends to boost the processing time of operations, increase the transparency of banking information, and enable the verification and exchange of information directly within the application. According to local Italian source Corriere Nazionale, the application of blockchain technology will also assist in specific aspects of banking operations that usually involve a number …
Blockchain / Oct. 2, 2018
Raiffeisen Among 18 Banks in First Global Tokenized Collateral Trial
Twenty-eight organizations including Raiffeisen and 17 other banks have participated in the successful completion of the Ivno Global Tokenized Collateral Trial. This is the first global token trial on the R3 Corda platform, hosted on Microsoft Azure, as reported on Oct. 17. Efficiencies in tokenized collateral The trial, conducted by London-based Ivno, saw the participating organizations create $18 billion of Trial Tokens, and transfer them through the Ivno network. This was a live demonstration of how mobile collateral tokens can be used for instant settlement, collateral management and effective cash transfer. Ivno’s platform is designed to improve efficiency and create …
Blockchain / Oct. 18, 2019
Commerzbank, Siemens and Continental Complete Blockchain Money Market Pilot
German banking and financial services company Commerzbank and technology companies Continental and Siemens have jointly conducted a money market security transaction pilot using blockchain technology. Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reported on the development on Feb. 21. Money market securities are short-terms assets that serve for financing companies and usually have a maturity of one year or less. Usually, the processing of a payment takes two days due to a clearing process. The aforementioned parties “for the first time” conducted a blockchain-based money market security transaction worth 100,000 euro ($113,340) within a pilot project in January, where Continental acted as the issuer …
Adoption / Feb. 21, 2019
SBI Ripple Asia, Japan Payment Card Consortium Partner on Blockchain System to Fight Fraud
SBI Ripple Asia and the Japan Payment Card Consortium have announced a joint proof of concept (PoC) to combat fraud with blockchain technology, according to an official release published Nov. 16. According to the news release, the PoC will be conducted on R3's blockchain platform, Corda, and will aim to prevent damage wrought by fraudulent transactions by enabling the real-time sharing of data between parties using blockchain. The Japan Payment Card Consortium counts nine major credit card issuers – including American Express (Amex), Credit Saison and Toyota Finance – and two payment-card technology providers as members. SBI Ripple Asia is …
Blockchain / Nov. 23, 2018
Banks and Regulators Complete KYC App Test on R3 Blockchain Platform
39 financial firms partnered with blockchain consortium R3 completed more than 300 transactions via R3’s know your customer (KYC) application, according to a post on R3’s blog June 28. R3’s KYC project involved major financial and banking institutions worldwide such as Deutsche Bank, ING, the National Bank of Egypt, Raiffeisen Bank International, and others. It also involved regulators and central banks such as the Central Bank of Colombia, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and the Financial Superintendence of Colombia. The transactions were conducted across eight timezones in 19 countries, wherein banks could request access to customer KYC data, and …
Blockchain / June 30, 2018