Nine member banks of the Japan Bankers Association (JBA) will test an interbank payment system based on the “Collaborative Blockchain Platform,” a solution on the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric created between financial institutions and the technology company Fujitsu.
Both parties seek to develop a new payment network to make transfers using a private blockchain. Fujitsu announced, through a press release, that the test “will use a cryptocurrency dedicated to interbank payments.” That will serve to evaluate the system as a financial settlement platform for small transactions, using a real-time interbank method.
The banks involved are Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Resona Bank, Joyo Bank, The Bank of Fukuoka, The Nishi-Nippon City Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, and Keiyo Bank. The JBA is providing member banks and other institutions with its “Collaborative Blockchain Platform,” which is a cloud service from Fujitsu, K5, based on Hyperledger Fabric, a platform powered by the Linux Foundation.
Japan Bankers Association (JBA) to test a Hyperledger Fabric-based interbank payment system
“The goal of this is to test the functionality of digital currency as a new interbank payment system that uses blockchain technology, as well as test the practical aspects surrounding the system such as performance and security,” stated Fujitsu.
Fujitsu has been involved with several blockchain projects since 2016. One of them was the test of cross-border payments made jointly by Mizuho Bank, Fujitsu Limited, and Fujitsu Laboratories. In July 2017, Fujitsu also announced that it was developing technology to accelerate transaction processing with Hyperledger Fabric.
Beyond the announcements of Fujitsu and the JBA, it must be noted that the operations involving cryptocurrency technology were created precisely to conduct transactions without the involvement of intermediaries, banks and other third-parties. Now it is the banks that are exploring the blockchain technology to take advantage of this technology financially.
