The Italian banking association, also referred to as Associazione Bancaria Italiana (ABI), has revealed that the blockchain platform Spunt, used for reconciling accounts, is being used by almost 100 banks.
After the foremost trial got completed two years ago with participation from 18 banks, the platform went live commercially six months before. At that time, the platform was used by 32 banks. So far, there have been two batches of adoption.
The latest batch involves 42 banks and the banks will start using the platform later this month. The total number of banks, which have started using the platform, totals to 97.
Earlier banks used to reconcile accounts on a monthly basis. With the advent of blockchain platform, the process is carried out every night, with 97.60% of transactions being matched automatically.
Facilitated to communicate about discrepancies is facilitated within the platform. NTT Data, in partnership with ABI Lab, is assisting in adoption of the platform using SIA’s network framework and R3’s Corda distributed ledger technology (DLT).
As earlier noted, the ABI states that the upbeat blockchain experience implies that Italian banks are very much interested in taking part in piloting of central bank digital currency (CBDC). As subsidiaries of European banks will certainly participate, ABI is now making efforts to sign up banks across the globe.
Italian banking sector was impressed by another blockchain project in addition to Spunta. The blockchain venture, supported by the Bank of Italy, aimed at preventing fake guarantees, a key issue in the country, has also garnered attention. The venture has received positive response from 30 banks so far and utilizes Corda, the enterprise level blockchain of R3.
