Blockchain consortium R3 and global IT leader Wipro Limited have developed a blockchain solution prototype to enable digital currency for interbank settlements in Thailand, according to a press release from May 7. The release states that the solution will be used by the country’s central bank, the Bank of Thailand (BoT), and eight local commercial banks to enable decentralized interbank real-time gross settlement using a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC). As a part of the first phase of the project, dubbed Inthanon, the solution is based on R3’s open source blockchain platform Corda, and intends to expand the technological …

Distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based trade finance network Marco Polo has onboarded three new members for piloting and evaluating purposes, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reports on April 26. Marco Polo Network is a joint undertaking with tech firm TradeIX, enterprise software company R3, and other 20 international financial institutions. The initiative provides a multi-asset class platform that offers broker dealer services, multi currency transactions, including equities, options, futures, and other related services. In an official announcement, the company revealed that it was joined by financial services provider for the Bavarian and German economies, BayernLB, one of the leading banks in the German …

Disclaimer. This article has been updated to include comments from Yoshitaka Kitao during the financial results conference call. Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO and representative director of Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings, has been appointed as an executive of Ripple Labs Inc., Cointelegraph Japan reports on April 26. As previously reported, SBI Holdings is an active partner of Ripple via their joint venture, “SBI Ripple Asia,” which was established to promote the use of XRP in Asian financial markets back in 2016. SBI’s official announcement states that Kitao’s appointment to his new executive role at Ripple Labs will aim to “further …

Major Japanese bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), will leverage R3’s Marco Polo blockchain network for trade finance, local cryptocurrency news outlet CoinDesk Japan reported on April 25. SMBC, which is Japan’s third-largest bank by assets, plans to roll out blockchain services in the second half of 2019. Other currency members of Marco Polo, which is powered by R3’s Corda enterprise blockchain platform, include banks such as BNP Paribas and ING. The product successfully conducted its first trade finance operations in March, an operation involving two German firms and local bank Commerzbank. “Trade finance […] is very complicated, and many …

Financial news outlet Forbes has released a list of “Blockchain’s Billion Dollar Babies,” or companies implementing blockchain technology that have minimum revenues or valuations of $1 billion, on April 16. The list includes companies in the cryptocurrency and blockchain development spaces, in addition to traditional financial firms like banks and clearing houses, food companies, supply chain management firms and others. Most of the companies listed are household names like Amazon, Walmart, Facebook, ING, Mastercard, Microsoft and Nestle. Cryptocurrency-related companies featured on the list include United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, European mining and hardware firm Bitfury, and blockchain-based financial services network …

Two major United Kingdom banks — Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) — have joined a trial using blockchain to streamline real estate purchasing after rethinking the technology’s potential, Bloomberg reported on April 4. The trial, which involved a total of 40 participants, used a tool from Instant Property Network (IPN), a startup using enterprise blockchain group R3’s Corda platform. Introducing blockchain into the real estate exchange arena worldwide could result in savings of $160 billion, IPN told Bloomberg, with the previously skeptical banks appearing to warm to this specific use case for blockchain. “We are near the end …

Blockchain consortium R3’s trade finance platform Marco Polo has completed its first real transactions, a press release from Commerzbank, one of the participants, confirmed on March 28. Marco Polo, which is built on R3 enterprise blockchain platform Corda, successfully facilitated a trade between Germany and China, involving two German firms. Tech group Voith and pump manufacturer KSB SE were the initiators of the transactions, which constituted a pilot scheme for Marco Polo. One transaction saw couplings delivered from Germany to China, while a second was based on hydraulic pumps delivered solely within Germany. The banks facilitating the operation were German …

Switzerland's principal stock exchange, SIX Swiss Exchange, has chosen to use blockchain consortium R3’s Corda Enterprise platform for its forthcoming blockchain-powered digital exchange. The news was revealed during the R3-hosted Corda Day event in Singapore on March 6. The SIX Swiss Exchange sees roughly 4.62 billion Swiss Francs (CHF) (~$4.6 billion) in daily turnover, and has a market capitalization of over 1.67 trillion CHF ~($1.6 trillion). As Cointelegraph reported in July 2018, SIX previously unveiled its plans to launch a digital asset ecosystem, dubbed Six Digital Exchange (SDX). In February 2019, the company announced it would be testing blockchain integration …

Several major crypto and traditional finance companies have replied to the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) request on crypto asset mechanics as late as Feb. 25. The CFTC published its inquiry in late December 2018. In it, the regulator’s LabCFTC initiative, focused on fintech innovations, sought public comments on the main principles of the Ethereum network. The watchdog’s reported aim was to understand similarities and distinctions between different cryptocurrencies and the “technology, mechanics, and markets for virtual currencies beyond Bitcoin.” In particular, the request for input focuses on Ethereum (ETH), along with opportunities and risks associated with its …

Software development company MonetaGo has switched over from Hyperledger Fabric to R3’s Corda as an enterprise blockchain platform, economics magazine Global Trade Review (GTR) reported on Feb. 26. MonetaGo, which previously had ties with both platforms, will now use Corda as it continues its expansion into Mexico and other international markets ahead of a current trial in India. The company offers blockchain-based fraud mitigation solutions for banks and previously operated as a cryptocurrency exchange before changing direction. “With the new deployments that we have coming up in Mexico, as well in other Latin American countries, the regulators themselves have been …

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 …

Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO and representative director of Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings, has singled out Ripple (XRP) and blockchain consortium R3 as reasons to remain optimistic about the future of the crypto industry — bear market notwithstanding. Kitao made his remarks during an interview with Japanese crypto news outlet Coin Post on Feb. 18. SBI Holdings is an active partner of Ripple via their joint venture, “SBI Ripple Asia,” established to promote the use of XRP in Asian financial markets back in 2016. In his interview with Coin Post, Kitao underscored that the protracted crypto market slump is not …