Nordea and three other banks join banking blockchain alliance

     Three banks from Asia and Europe have joined a global banking blockchain protocol consortium launched in London .

     Attracted by blockchain and distributed ledger technology, Italy's UniCredit, Japan's Mizuho Bank and Sweden's Nordea Bank have joined the global banking blockchain protocol, which now has 25 participating banks, including banking giants such as Citigroup, Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC.

Alliance founder David Rutter said:

     The initiative has received strong interest from banks around the world since its launch, with nine banking institutions joining the agreement just a month ago.

     The move marks the beginning of a global alliance of banks covering sales, retail, payments, corporate banking, trade finance, wealth and asset management .

     The establishment of a partnership will also enable members within the alliance to use their internal resources to jointly develop a distributed ledger solution, which will effectively reduce audit costs and increase transaction speed.

Erik Zingmark, Vice Chairman of Nordea Bank , added:

     As the largest bank in the Nordic region, we are always looking for new technologies that will allow us to serve our customers more efficiently and effectively. Distributed ledger technology has the potential to disrupt and reshape the banking industry, which is why we joined the alliance.