Standard Chartered’s Singapore Branch Closes its First Trade Deal via Blockchain

The Singaporean office of Standard Chartered – international banking and financial service provider, has closed its first cross-border financial transaction using Blockchain technology.

Standard Chartered chose to rely on the blockchain startup Distributed Ledger Technologies for the transaction. The partnership implemented an agricultural business transaction and succeeded in completing it within 24 hours, compared to the previous five to seven days period.

According to data from 2017 for the finance industry, over $9 trillion worth of transactions were completed using legacy methods and old-school paperwork.

In its press release, Standard Chartered has reported that blockchain technology is the perfect tool to optimize and streamline document and money transfer between banks and investors. The company also notes that Blockchain and DLT offer much-needed security and transparency.

Standard Chartered is also taking a significant role in the creation of the jointly-created financial trading platform eTrade Connect. Other major banks include HSBC and BNP Paribas.

In the press release, Standard Chartered notes that document digitalization and the ability to automate multiple trade processes is “maybe the best option for modern banks to streamline their workflow and cooperation with other banks and financial institutions”. The bank expects blockchain technology to shrink down the risks to a bare minimum, considering letters of credit (LoC) frauds and the massive delays due to slow processing of data.

In October 2018, the bank announced that their IT department is utilizing a pilot method for bank guarantees. The system will rely on R3’s CORDA blockchain.

Just before the end of last year, Standard Chartered also announced its partnership with Brazil’s largest private banking services provider – Itau Unibanco, to develop a blockchain platform for loans.