SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Banks Itaú Unibanco Holding SA and Standard Chartered have collaborated on the development of a blockchain-based platform for small syndicated loans, both companies said in a statement on Monday.
A man uses an ITAU ATM in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Decemeber 3, 2018. REUTERS / Nacho Doce
This platform is the first to go live in Latin America for so-called club loans, a sort of syndicated loan with a smaller group of lenders.
It is the latest in a series of attempts by banks to take advantage of the blockchain, a shared digital transaction recording managed by a computer network rather than a centralized authority.
The use of blockchain in the banking sector is expected to reduce the risk of fraud in financial transactions, as well as reduce complexity and costs, the banks said.
The Spanish BBVA has declared that in June it has passed to the test phase of a project aimed at the use of blockchain technology on syndicated loans and in April became the first global lender to organize an end-to-end business loan using blockchain technology.
Brazil's largest private lender, Itaú Unibanco, raised $ 100 million with Standard Chartered and Wells Fargo & Co in a club loan to test the platform.
Ricardo Nuno, chief executive officer of the Itaú treasury, said that the banks have negotiated all the terms of the loan through the blockchain-based platform, but have not transferred the money, although he has said that the platform could do so in the future.
Nuno, who stated that Itaú was considering the use of the customer loan platform, added that the platform helped banks cut the legal costs and reduced the number of messages exchanged between the parties, usually around 2,000 e-mails.
Germana Cruz, head of Standard Chartered financial institutions for Latin America, said the bank could use the experiment in Brazil in new agreements in Latin America.
The transaction was carried out on a platform called Corda, which was developed by R3, a New York startup focused on the development of blockchain technology for the financial sector.
Despite the blockchain-based technology-related euphoria, many financial institutions have set aside blockchain projects for cost reasons for the readiness of the sector, a Reuters report found at the start of this year.
Reporting by Carolina Mandl; Editing by Christian Plumb and Frances Kerry
