Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), the second-largest bank in South East Asia by assets, has become the first top tier bank of Singapore to join JPMorgan’s Interbank Information Network (IIN), JPMorgan’s live blockchain service specifically developed for cross-border transactions.
According to the Business Times Singapore, there are plenty of banks from the Asia-Pacific that have already signed up for the IIN, and Singapore’s OCBC is going to be one of them. The majority of these banks are either small tier or medium tier regional banks. The total number of Asia-Pacific banks joined the blockchain network of JPMorgan now stand at 134 which is about 40% of total 343 banks that have signed up for the network since 2018.
There are 80 Japanese banks on the network, constituting as a significant share of IIN. Another leading bank of , from the EU, Deutsche Bank has also joined JPMorgan’s DLT-based payments settlement system. With Deutsche Bank’s arrival and other 65 banks already up-and-running, JPMorgan has already started conducting live transactions on the network.
IIN was initially launched as a pilot in 2017 to address the major issues associated with the global payments process, including the delays in cross-border payments, surpassed transaction charges and dispute settlement. The idea of IIN revolves around the private blockchain Quorum developed by JPMorgan. This ledger allows the permissioned banks to connect on the network and exchange the transaction-related information.
John Hunter, global head of clearing for JPMorgan Chase, stated about IIN:
“The intent with IIN was always to develop a meaningful ecosystem of bank users, all focused on harnessing emerging technologies such as blockchain to better address the complex cross border payments industry. In just one year, we’ve seen the IIN scale as well as expand in terms of role and capabilities – and we are excited at the growth to come.”
Hunter further said that the bank is doing all it can to empower the banks that joined the network and is working tirelessly to develop new applications which can be deployed on the network. This new ecosystem will allow the banks to create new products related to cross-border payments.
“The more banks that join the network, the more dramatic the reduction in payment delays,” Hunter said. “As the network scales, our clients’ payments will be processed faster with the less operational expense.”
Apart from IIN, JPMorgan is also developing its native cryptocurrency called JPM Coin which will facilitate instantaneous settlement for the bank’s wholesale payments clients.
