Entering the international blockchain, Taiwan's Chinatrust Bank is the first to join the R3 Alliance. In the future, cross-border remittances will only take 3 seconds

Reporter: Pencil lead

Chinatrust Commercial Bank of Taiwan announced that it will lead the blockchain development plan and officially join the R3 Alliance, the world's largest financial blockchain, becoming Taiwan's first R3 Alliance member. The next step will be to jointly develop innovative applications of blockchain technology with more than 60 large financial institutions around the world, including Citibank, Barclays Bank, UBS and China Ping An Insurance Group.

In the past year, the R3 Alliance has successfully tested and shortened the cross-border remittance process from 3 to 5 days to 3 to 5 seconds, and plans to use blockchain technology to create more financial innovations in projects such as loan grants and insurance claims in the future.

Su Meixun

Su Meixun, Deputy General Manager of Digital Finance Department of Chinatrust Bank, said:

Unlike current transaction records that are managed by central institutions, blockchain is a distributed database maintained and recorded by its participating members. Participating members can track and grasp the transfer and transaction records of valuables in real time, and the transaction records cannot be tampered with. It is expected to bring four major values ​​to financial institutions, including improving efficiency, reducing costs, reducing risks and expanding business.

David Rutter

David Rutter, founder and CEO of R3, said:

Chinatrust Bank’s joining the R3 Alliance is an important milestone for the R3 Alliance to expand into the Asian market. We very much look forward to the two sides working together to develop truly cross-border international blockchain applications, bringing substantial benefits and help to Chinatrust Bank and its customers.

The R3 Alliance has created a development platform for financial institutions to collaborate with each other in a secure environment. It has assisted member banks in completing a number of blockchain experimental projects. For example, "trade finance" will be developed by 15 banks including UBS and Bank of America through the R3 Alliance's blockchain technology platform Corda to achieve paperless operation procedures.

As for "digital currency", the Bank of Canada is using the technology of the R3 Alliance and working with Canadian banks to test the feasibility of the concept of issuing, converting and settling central bank assets using blockchain technology.

Chinatrust Bank said that through the R3 Alliance and international financial institutions, they have conducted joint research and cooperated with domestic and foreign technical teams and start-up companies to try several projects to understand the business benefits and technical barriers of introducing blockchain technology. They hope that the domestic blockchain technology development team can work with Chinatrust Bank to explore the potential and application value of blockchain. In addition, Chinatrust Bank has long sponsored sports activities to provide corporate employees with a healthier working environment. It has also built a sports and fitness area comparable to a gym, provided high-quality sports facilities, and encouraged employees to exercise more with various incentives. It was awarded the "2016 Sports Enterprise Certification" by the Sports Administration of the Ministry of Education.