Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank conducts blockchain test

Rage Commentary : In December last year, Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank joined the R3 blockchain alliance. After conducting technical research with Kinki University in Osaka, Japan at the beginning of this year, it finally decided to cooperate with IBM and Japanese IT company NEC Corporation to carry out blockchain application research and development in the fields of finance, real estate and asset custody, and develop a prototype of blockchain remittance and settlement services.

Translation: Annie_Xu

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank (SMTB), one of Japan’s largest banks, is conducting multiple blockchain tests with IBM. SMTB announced that the cooperation projects include finance, real estate and asset custody.

SMTB is one of the R3 blockchain consortium, and earlier this year the bank announced that it was collaborating with multiple Japanese institutions to conduct blockchain technology research, including Kinki University in Osaka. The research led the bank to work with IBM Japan and domestic IT company NEC Corporation to develop a blockchain prototype.

"The purpose of the trial is to evaluate the potential and effectiveness of transformative IT technologies in significantly improving or simplifying existing services and processes."

The bank further stated that it would cooperate with the joint venture between SBI Holdings and Ripple to conduct blockchain cross-border remittance tests, hoping to "develop new remittance and settlement services using blockchain technology" in the future.