Poland is world’s first for banking records on blockchain
Blockchain used for storage and access to sensitive customer information
Billon and the Polish Credit Office (Biuro Informacji Kredytowej – BIK), the largest credit bureau in Central and Eastern Europe, will implement blockchain for storage and access to sensitive customer information.
According to Billon, its blockchain technology will benefit the bureau through security, integrity and immutability of data.
The GDPR compliant solution guarantees “total visibility, trackable history and full data integrity for any client-facing document” including banking records, loan agreements, insurance claims, telephone bills and terms and conditions.
Mariusz Cholewa, president of BIK, says: “Our cooperation with Billon is long-term. We believe that blockchain technology will transform client communications in the financial sector. Our solution will soon be expanded to include electronic delivery with active confirmation and remote signing of online agreements. It is also important that the solution meets legal requirements of a durable medium of information, as well as the EU GDPR requirements.”
BIK is owned by various banks active in Poland – including Pekao, ING, mBank, Santander and Citi. It tracks nearly 140 million credit histories of over one million businesses and 24 million people.
The BIK-Billon partnership saw eight Polish banks participating in trials, which established that Billon’s scalable blockchain architecture could publish over 150 million documents every month.
Billon says this would be “more than sufficient for even the largest institutions to move to paperless customer service”.
The solution has been approved following consultation with the Polish Office of Competition (UOKiK) and Data Protection Regulator (GIODO), making it one of the “world’s first regtech compliant blockchain solutions”.
Last month, Billon partnered with Igoria Trade to let users make payments in 150 currencies.
Igoria Trade will provide its IgoriaCard, which uses the Mastercard network to deliver an internet transaction system for managing limits, payment history, and enabling currency exchange, in both a plastic and virtual form.
