UPDATED 23:17 EDT / OCTOBER 16 2017

EMERGING TECH

JP Morgan Chase announces new blockchain-based platform for cross-border transactions

JP Morgan Chase & Co. today followed in the footsteps of IBM Corp. in announcing a new Ethereum blockchain-based payments platform designed to facilitate cross-border financial transactions by banks.

Called the Interbank Information Network, the network aims to “enhance the client experience” by reducing the amount of time it takes to transfer money across borders from as long as several weeks to hours, with fewer steps and better security.

The first two banks to sign on to the network are the Royal Bank of Canada and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., with JP Morgan claiming that they represent “significant cross-border payment volumes.” In ANZ’s case, the bank has a strong presence across Southeast Asia, including retail license in countries with less fluid currencies such as Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam, making the platform particular helpful in processing transactions among its network of branches.

Powering the network is Quorum, the Ethereum blockchain variant announced by JP Morgan in October 2016. Although it’s a proper digital ledger in every sense, Quorum has additional features such as allowing banks to process confidential transactions. It also includes the ability to limit access to transactions across a network to only those people who need to know the details of the actual transaction, such as those involved in the transaction itself, or even regulators.

Emma Loftus, head of global payments and foreign exchange at J.P. Morgan Treasury Services, told Reuters that “blockchain capabilities have allowed us to rethink how critical information can be sourced and exchanged between global banks.”

The embrace of blockchain-based technology by JP Morgan comes as its Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dillon continues to slam bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that brought the world the blockchain to begin with. Dillon has previously called bitcoin a “fraud” that “wouldn’t end well,” and as recently as Friday said that if people are “stupid enough to buy” bitcoin, they will pay the price for it.

Photo: bensutherland/Flickr

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