The most important Spanish banks announced they have the initiative to make payments and transfers using a blockchain platform.
The initiative was announced recently by Spanish banks, which seek to use blockchain technology for the advancement of their payments and efforts. Bankia, BBVA, CaixaBank and the Santander group advanced to take the first proofs of concept soon, in order to finish with the assembly of a related platform to connect them.
In this way, they classified the project as the “smart payments” tool, whose objective will be to allow the use of a private blockchain platform for the improvement of transactions carried out between its platforms.
In addition, it was known that this project that is being developed has the participation of Grant Thornton, who made possible the blockchain laboratory. Grant Thornton also serves as an advisor regarding the technology that will be implemented in collaboration with Iberpay, which is the Spanish company, specialized in compensation, liquidation, and exchange of operations between financial institutions in Spain, and also is responsible for mobilizing the entire National Payment System (SNCE).
On the official website of Iberpay, there is a graphic that indicates the project and classified it as the function that controls the transfers are immediate through the use of smart contracts, which will be executed and programmed automatically. This promises to provide a rapid improvement to security systems, as well as their traceability. In this way, users will be able to comply with all current regulations and regularization in the European country.
Although the proofs of concept began last October, it is expected that they will not end until mid-March 2020. These tests include a pilot that will pretend an operation with the use of the network, using the capacity of about “six nodes distributed and managed for each participating entity”.
The so-called Proof of Concepts (PoC) are examples of simulation that help determine the best use for the application of technology or the application of new methods. This helps to measure the correct potential for acceptance in the market to which it is aimed. This test will help to implement in the “smart payments”, a whole range of services that banks can implement in the future. Some of them include letters of credit, export insurance, shipping insurance, credit protection, among others.
Although these services are currently offered by some banking institutions, they are expensive and difficult to execute or manage. With the implementation of a complex system that allows the automatic and efficient application of these services, a wider massification of these services could be generated and the entire known interbank network would be improved.
Visualizing the role that these banking institutions seek to play in the future, it can be determined that these services, which were previously only offered between some banks, can be enabled for their clients, which would generate a new ecosystem in which banks will be part of a set of possibilities that will help customers carry out their operations with greater safety and efficiency.
Currently, some obstacles are known that would prevent the full development of these systems in local and global banks. Among them, the high number of regulations against the use of cryptocurrencies and tokens stands out.
This would greatly help international payments and avoid the use of clearinghouses. But another strong obstacle is related to security since digitalization has made this terrain something vulnerable to maintain, and the creation of new tools can prevent threats that may arise in the future so this would be a great solution and a new option for the community.
By María Rodríguez
