Financial innovation firm R3 continues to draw powerful allies in its blockchain consortium; the latest ones to join it are three banks namely Mizuho Financial Group, Nordea and UniCredit.
Blockchain is the technology behind virtual currency Bitcoin and it continues to draw powerful admirers.
All have joined this consortium to design and apply the distributed ledger technology, blockchain, for the global financial markets.
Interest in the initiative amongst the international banking community has continued to grow at a rapid pace ever since its launch with the backing of nine financial institutions in September of this year.
These three join other financial heavyweights like the Barclays, Bank of America, BBVA, BNY Mellon, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Citi, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, National Australia Bank, J.P. Morgan, Goldman SachsHSBC, Morgan Stanley, State Street, Royal Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Scotland, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, SEB, Societe Generale, Toronto-Dominion Bank and UBS, taking the number of participants to 25.
Paolo Fiorentino, Deputy General Manager of UniCredit hoped that the move to join blockchain consortium will enable “UniCredit to play a leading role in the upcoming revolution of the financial products and payment services, as well as in the overall banking industry proposition”.
R3’s CEO David Rutter expressed his delight over the development and said that the interest in the project was palpable ever since it was launched.
The aim of this project is to establish consistent standards and protocols for the technology in order to help in broader adoption and gain a network effect.
Toshitsugu Okabe, Deputy President & Executive Officer in charge of Incubation Project Team, at Mizuho Financial Group feels that the “distributed ledger technologies might become the next disruptive technology that has the potential to innovate everyday banking activities.”
Almost echoing Okabe was Erik Zingmark, the current deputy head of Nordea Transaction Products who also spoke about the blockchain stating that “the distributed ledger technology has the potential to reshape the banking industry.