Standard Bank builds blockchain for international payments

Standard Bank has announced that its international settlements blockchain hosted on hyperledger fabric is set to go live in the first half of 2019.
The platform aims to increase the speed and transparency of international payments and trades by providing an instantly-available record of documents and settlements stored in the cloud.
Conducting offshore payments in South Africa currently requires a number of steps to be completed, which can drastically slow the process.
“The majority of client trades fail in the first mile of payment. That is, at the very beginning,” said Standard Bank head of foreign exchange Richard de Roos.
“We could actually offer clients a fully integrated end-to-end blockchain solution that would dramatically reduce the incidence of trade failure while also increasing regulatory transparency and improving the visibility of liquidity,” he said.
The blockchain developed by Standard Bank is a limited private permission-based platform which can be accessed through a web interface, ultimately becoming available at all of the bank’s online channels.
Initially, this private permission-based network will only include Standard Bank and Stanbic Bank partner banks, clients, and third parties directly involved in trades.
It is important to note that this will be a private blockchain by Standard Bank, and will only be interacted with by approved partners.