A group of European banks announced they have completed first live blockchain-based financial trades across borders via their jointly developed we.trade blockchain plaform.
According to an announcement on Tuesday, the real-life trades were executed over the past five days among 10 companies and were facilitated by four banks using the blockchain technology.
HSBC, one of the nine institutions that set up the platform as a joint venture, claimed that three of its clients managed to complete open account transactions last week via we.trade within Europe.
Built on IBM's Blockchain Platform and its Hyperledger Fabric technology, we.trade was established by Deutsche Bank, HSBC, KBC, Natixis, Nordea, Rabobank, Santander, Société Générale and UniCredit, in a bid to boost the efficiency of cross-border financial transactions.
As reported by CoinDesk in April, we.trade was planning to begin testing the platform in May with an expected commercial release in the summer.
At the time, Société Générale told CoinDesk the reason we.trade's development can move fast is that it focuses on small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) trading within Europe.
Parm Sangha, IBM's blockchain lead in Europe, commented in today's announcement:
"As we.trade has moved from pilot applications to conducting live transactions across borders, it has demonstrated the power of blockchain technology in an enterprise setting."
Currently, we.trade operates in 11 European countries. Roberto Mancone, the platform's chief operating officer said in the announcement the next step will be "getting buy-in from additional banks and their customers in Europe and further afield."
HSBC image via Shutterstock
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