Italy’s banks set up their blockchain front line
A first group of 14 Italian banks has started testing a blockchain system with the support of ABI Lab, the technological laboratory supported by the Italian Banking Association (ABI).
Once the initial testing phase is over, the pilot will be extended to a larger number of banks.
This new tech will be applied to interbank processes to increase data transparency and visibility, speed in executing transactions, the participants say, as well as allowing checks and exchanges directly within the application.
The project aims to solve interbank reconciliation, which verifies the matching of two correspondent accounts at different banks, all in all reducing the discrepancies between banks.
The new systems will make bilateral channels available through that will maintain confidentiality of the information. Smart contracts will make it possible to provide automatic feedback on bank transactions, thus simplifying and accelerating the reconciliation process.
The group will be using R3’s Corda blockchain technology, and is collaborating with NTT Data for development of the application and SIA as provider of the node infrastructure to define the new verification process.
The pilot includes the following banks: Banca Mediolanum, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Banca Sella, BNL BNP Paribas Group, Banca Popolare di Sondrio, Banco BPM, CheBanca! – Mediobanca Group, Credito Emiliano, Crédit Agricole, Credito Valtellinese, Iccrea Banca, Intesa Sanpaolo, Nexi Banca, and Ubi.
