On the 'Beyond fintech' conference in Budapest organized by FinTechZone I gave a brief overview about the blockchain projects initiated by banks and why the blockchain is not only about technology.

1. BLOCKCHAIN PROJECTS
FROM THE FINANCIAL SECTOR

2. WHY THE BLOCKCHAIN?
DISINTERMEDIATION TRANSPARENCY PROVENANCE
PROCESS AUTOMATION
GOVERNANCE &
SAFEGUARDS
PERFORMANCE & SPEED SCALABILITY
FASTER TRANSACTIONS
SECURITY & COMPLIANCE
BENEFITS
GOALS
RESULTS
REQUIREMENTS
COST REDUCTIONEFFICIENCY CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

3. INDUSTRY JOIN FORCES
USA
(San Francisco)
• initiated by: Linux Foundation
• goal: cross-industry collaboration, develop
blockchain frameworks and standards
• bank members:
• Europe: ABN Amro, BBVA, BNP Paribas,
BoE, Sberbank
• USA & Canada: BNY Mellon, J.P. Morgan,
Wells Fargo
• Australia: ANZ
• premier technology members: Digital Asset,
SAP, IBM, Cisco, Accenture, Intel, R3!
SWITZERLAND
(Zug)
• goal: define open-source standards for building
enterprise-grade softwares based on Ethereum
blockchain
• bank members:
• Europe: UBS, BBVA, Santander, Credit
Suisse, ING, OTP, Rabobank,
• USA & Canada: BNY Mellon, J.P. Morgan,
National Bank of Canada, Scotiabank,
• Asia: MUFG
• technology partners: Accenture, Intel, Cisco,
Infosys, Microsoft

4. BLOCKCHAIN PROJECTS FROM
AROUND THE WORLD
USA
UK Netherland
Switzerland
France
UAE
India
Australia
trade finance
asset
management
remittance
KYC & AML
Belgium
inter-bank clearing &
settlement
financing

5. UK: RIPPLE BASED INTERNATIONAL
PAYMENTS VIA MOBILE APP
UK
Project initiated: Santander
Status: employee pilot
Area international payments
Partner: Ripple
Last status date: May 2016
• lets users transfer between 10 - 10.000 GBP and
payments can be made from GBP to EUR or USD
• via a mobile app (incl. Apple Pay & touch ID)
• EUR can be sent to 21 countries; USD to USA only
• 0/24
• funds appears in the recepient’s account the next
working day
• using Ripple protocol

6. SWITZERLAND: ASSET MANAGEMENT
SERVICE FOR CRYPTOCURRENCIES
SWITZERLAND
• cryptocurrency portfolio management: storage,
exchange and reporting
• cryptocurrencies available: Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin,
Bitcoin Cash
• Bitcoin ATM
• approved by FINMA
Project initiated: Falcon Group
Status: LIVE service
Area asset management
Partner: Bitcoin Suisse AG
Last status date: July 2017

7. NETHERLAND: ‘TORCH’ APPLICATION TO
SUPPORT REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS
Netherland
• for real estates financed by ABN Amro
• accessible by every party involved in a real estate
transaction: buyers and sellers, landlords and tenants,
bank, appraisers, notaries, Land Registry Office,
Chamber of Commerce and other regulators
• digitized documentum & information management:
contracts & its validation, valuation report, additional
information from the Land Registry Office or other
regulators.
Project initiated: ABN Amro
Status: MVP beta test
Area real estate financing
Partner: IBM
Last status date: September 2017

8. France
• startups and SMEs that are clients of SmartAngels
crowdfunding platform are able to issue securities
• investors’ payments are processed immediately and
e-certificate issued instantly
• investors are allowed to trade securities directly on
the SmartAngels platform
• simplified management of shareholders for the issuer
Project initiated: BNP Paribas Securities
Status: pilot
Area equity crowdfunding
Partner: SmartAngels crowdfunding platform
Last status date: July 2017
FRANCE: SHARED REGISTER FOR
SECURITIES VIA CROWFUNDING PLATFORM

9. AUSTRALIA: BANK GUARANTEE
TOKENIZATION AND LIFECYCLE
MANAGEMENT
Australia
• commercial partner in the test: shopping centre
operator (Scentre Group)
• complete lifecycle of bank guarantees related to
lease contracts managed on blockchain: issuance,
validation, modification, claiming and cancellation
• further features: portfolio tracking & reporting,
lifecycle notifications
• pilot continues, involving more industry players
Project initiated: ANZ, Westpac
Status: succesful test
Area trade finance / bank guarantee
Partner: IBM
Last status date: July 2017

10. UAE & INDIA: CROSS-BORDER REAL-
TIME TRANSACTION MANAGEMENT
India
• vendor: EdgeVerve (Infosys Finacle leányvállalata)
• the Finacle Universal Banking solutions have already
been used by the banks - EdgeVerve Blockchain
Framework has been integrated into it
• successful pilot for the UAE-India remittance corridor
• real-time transaction processing vis-a-vis the SWIFT
processing time
Project initiated: Emirates NBD, ICICI
Status: successful test
Area remittance, trade finance
Partner: Infosys Finacle
Last status date: October 2016
UAE

11. INDIA: ‘CLEAR-CHAIN’ (c2) PROJECT
FOR KYC AND AML
India
• initiated by: BankChain consortium (indian initiative)
• project participants: SBI,Axis, CBI, ICICI, DCB, HDFC
• scope: sharing KYC & AML data (e.g. investigation
reports, suspicious transaction report)
• it also has a regulator node - providing access to the
Clear-Chain data
• based on Chain protocol
Project initiated: SBI via BankChain consortium
Status: successful test
Area KYC, AML
Partner: Primechain Technologies
Last status date: May 2017

12. USA: SMART CONTRACT BASED
TRADE FINANCE
USA
• application mirrors the paper-heavy LC transactions
• blockchain contains all the data and digitized
documents related to the LC transaction
• the smart contract feature provides automatic
payment in case conditions are met
• based on Hyperledger Project ‘Fabric’ solution
Project initiated: Bank of America, HSBC
Status: test ongoing
Area trade finance / Letter of Credit
Partner:
IDA (Infocomm Development Authority)
Singapore
Last status date: August 2016

13. EUROPEAN DTC (DIGITAL TRADE
CHAIN) PLATFORM FOR SME
Belgium
• goal of the platform: make domestic & cross-border
commerce easier for SMEs via a shared supply chain
management and trade finance platform
• KBC already tested in 2016 summer with some of its
SME clients
• 6 more banks joined in January 2017: Deutsche,
HSBC, Rabobank, Natixis, Société Générale,
Unicredit
• based on Hyperledger Project ‘Fabric’
Project initiated: KBC
Status: test ongoing
Area trade finance
Partner: IBM
Last status date: July 2017

14. THINKING OUT OF THE BLOCK
NOT ONLY FOR
EXISTING
PROCESS
NOT ONLY
TECHNOLOGY
ECOSYSTEM
THINKING
OPEN NETWORK
TRUST IS THE PRIVILEGE OF BANKS. FOREVER?
COLLABORATION
RATHER THAN
COMPETITION
NEW BUSINESS
MODELS

15. FEMTECHLAB LTD.
SZILVIA EGRI
szilvia.egri@femtechlab.hu