-- Blockchain network designed to help make domestic and
cross-border commerce easier
-- IBM Blockchain running Hyperledger Fabric Selected
for Digital Trade Chain
ARMONK, N.Y., June 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE:
IBM) today announced that it has been selected by a consortium of
seven of Europe's largest banks to build and host a new trade
finance platform based on IBM Blockchain powered by
Hyperledger Fabric. The platform is designed to simplify and
facilitate domestic and cross-border trade for small and medium
enterprises in Europe, while
helping to increase overall trade transaction transparency.
Through a global competitive bidding process, IBM was selected
by the Digital Trade Chain Consortium which consists of Deutsche
Bank, HSBC, KBC, Natixis, Rabobank, Societe Generale and
Unicredit.
The Digital Trade Chain solution will run in the IBM Cloud and
is designed to connect the parties involved in a trade transaction,
both online and via mobile devices. It is designed to simplify
trade finance processes by addressing the challenge of managing,
tracking and securing domestic and international trade
transactions.
"To make the Digital Trade Chain network a reality and enable it
to serve potentially thousands of the consortium's banking clients,
we turned to IBM in enterprise blockchain to help us quickly bring
this highly scalable system into production," said Rudi Peeters, CIO, KBC on behalf of the
Consortium. "Their blockchain and banking industry expertise will
help us create a new platform for small and medium businesses in
Europe that can enable them for
faster, easier and cheaper trade transactions."
By addressing the financing gap of small and medium enterprises
(SME) – a traditionally underserved market segment – the solution
is anticipated to help open new revenue streams and initiate new
trading relationships and foster trade growth. According to the
World Bank, 50 percent of SMEs do not have access to formal
credit.*
The platform will also increase access to financing by infusing
cross-border trade transactions with accountability and
transparency. The highly scalable platform can support customers
from all banks in the consortium and helps equip SMEs to initiate
trade with new partners domestically or in other European markets.
With the Digital Trade Chain, SMEs will have access to an easy to
use platform that provides a consolidated view of trade
transactions. This in turn helps promote accountability in
transactions, gain access to capital and contributes to reducing
some risk. The Digital Trade Chain also optimizes some
administrative tasks for SME customers by digitizing the entire
supply chain process from order to settlement, and allows trading
partners to track and trace transactions as they are processed.
"In working with hundreds of clients around the world on a
diverse range of blockchain projects, trade finance has emerged as
one of the strongest use cases for the technology," said
Marie Wieck, general manager, IBM
Blockchain. "By addressing the SME market, which faces challenges
in data sharing and access to capital, the Digital Trade Chain
Consortium is pioneering a unique blockchain solution with the
potential for widespread impact."
The Digital Trade Chain network will be built on Hyperledger
Fabric v1.0.0, an open source blockchain framework and one of the
five Hyperledger projects hosted by The Linux Foundation,
and hosted on the IBM Cloud. The Digital Trade Chain is expected to
go into production by end of 2017. The consortium started in
January 2017 with seven European
banks and is expected to grow to include additional banks from
other countries and as well as trading partners such as shippers,
freight forwarders and credit agencies. The Digital Trade Chain
concept has already won two industry awards: EFMA-Accenture award
for 'best new product or service in banking' and the Global Finance
award for 'Innovator in Trade Finance.'
Hyperledger Fabric is an open source blockchain framework and
one of the five Hyperledger projects hosted by The Linux
Foundation.
About IBM
IBM is the leader in open-source blockchain
solutions built for the enterprise. As an early member
of Hyperledger, an open source collaborative effort created to
advance cross-industry blockchain technologies, IBM is
dedicated to supporting the development of openly-governed
blockchains. IBM has worked with more than 400 clients across
financial services, supply chains, IoT, risk management, digital
rights management and healthcare to implement blockchain
applications. For more information about IBM Blockchain, visit
www.ibm.com/blockchain.
*
http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/financialsector/brief/smes-finance
Contact:
Hannah
Slocum
IBM Communications
hslocum@us.ibm.com
+1 212 671 9974
Stef Leunens
pressofficekbc@kbc.be
+32 2 429 65 01
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SOURCE IBM