29 Nov 2019 Josphat Kariuki
National Westminster Bank Enters A Blockchain Consortium With Coadjute
One of England’s largest banks, National Westminster (commonly known as NatWest), is planning to boost the process of finalizing real estate buying in the United Kingdom via a distributed ledger. NatWest entered a consortium with the real estate blockchain network Coadjute to cut down the time from three months to just a couple of weeks.
The consortium includes leading software companies like Dezrez Estate Agency Software, eTech Surveyor, LMS Panel Managements, Search Acumen, as well as other real estate-oriented software providers.
The new distributed ledger platform is based on R3’s Corda Network framework. The consortium will host the ledger on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service.
The platform would enable unprecedented transparency in real estate buying, as the parties involved in the purchasing process can transfer data about a given property in a seamless way. Users can monitor the process via a companion app, which will explore the ledger and provide real-time data about the process completion.
NatWest would greatly benefit from the consortium because banks are the primary source of funding for buying a house. When data is streamlined, NatWest could lend funds much faster, without the need for additional time delays due to the slow information sharing process. Data security is also enhanced by the new platform, providing banks, property buyers, and intermediaries with a safe medium for personal data sharing.
NatWest’s Director of Mortgage Innovation Dan Salmons stated his positivism about the new consortium.
“Through innovation, we are making the lives of our clients as easy as possible. The complexity of the property buying business has been a critical issue for many clients. With this consortium, we are hoping to boost the ease of the entire process, and to make it safe and transparent”, Salmons added.
The use of blockchain technology in the banking sector is still considered as an exotic option, despite the benefits of speed, security, and transparency. Blockchain could also eliminate the need for third parties in the processes.
Search Acumen’s Head of Data and Strategic Products Christian Woodhouse noted the frustration and complexity of the present system. “People still rely on mostly paper-based documentation, and the sole communication between lawyer is still a cumbersome process,” Woodhouse stated.
R3’s CEO David Rutter also stated the importance of blockchain technology for the real-estate sector, noting that “the property sector would continue to benefit from the global digital transformation, leaving slow, complex and ineffective processes in the past.”
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