PIER is an extensive database that will be part of three Brazilian financial institutions. The platform is currently operating on JPMorgan’s Quorum blockchain.
The new blockchain platform of the Central Bank, PIER, cost more than one million reais (BRA) (equivalent to nearly USD 250,000) and will run on the Quorum blockchain, which belongs to the renowned financial services company, JP Morgan.
The Central Bank of Brazil began developing PIER blockchain in 2017 and launched it in early April this year. In total, the agency is investing exactly BRA 1,300,000 (equivalent to about USD 248,008).
Even though that is a huge amount of money, the Central Bank is confident that PIER will be worth it. It is an extensive integrated database for the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB), the Brazilian Securities Commission (CVM), the Superintendency of Private Insurance (SUSEP) and, eventually, the Superintendency of Social Security (PRIVEC). The objective is to replace the procedure of sharing Brazilian paper records with a fully digitized one.
The use of PIER has already shown positive results. For example, it is now possible to do something that used to take many hours or days in a few seconds. All the necessary data are available online, according to the Central Bank of Brazil, also known as Bacen.
Important coordination of efforts under the agreement between CVM and the Central Bank has made the use of PIER possible. Besides, this is a delivery that responds to regulators’ frequent demand to comply with the obligations to the State most rationally and predictably possible. Besides, the platform will contribute significantly to the increasing effectiveness of regulators’ individual or coordinated action, thus being a real win-win situation.
These data are more reliable, since PIER removed them from the source, and are now on JP Morgan’s open-source Quorum blockchain. According to the Central Bank of Brazil, this Ethereum-based platform overlaps the “private IT infrastructure”.
The blockchain gives each regulator easy access to the records of its sister organs. This will allow processing information, from verifying political appointments and conducting financial investigations to authorizing companies, in a faster and cheaper manner.
How PIER Will Work
A publication on the official CVM website explains how PIER will integrate the systems of the three regulatory institutions. It takes into account an extensive integrated database, with information on the following three types: (1) punitive or restrictive, (2) registration or curriculum, and (3) corporate.
In this way, the user will log in, select one topic (of the three mentioned above), insert the regulated CPF or CNPJ (Brazilian tax identification document) and then select the institution to direct the query. Then, the list with the information available will appear on the screen.
This platform provides the user with flexibility so that he or she can make queries with more than one topic simultaneously. There are many possibilities to work with existing data sets, which will depend on the user’s needs, according to Frederico Faria, an analyst at the Systems Management (GSI/STI) of CVM.
Finally, something that used to require many requests and authorizations through traditional means or e-mail will become automated and always have updated data.
By Alexander Salazar
