Gazprom, Raiffeisen Bank to Issue Bank Guarantee on Blockchain

Russian business newspaper Kommersant has announced that the Raiffeisen Bank International’s subsidiary has joined forces with local state-owned oil firm Gazprom Neft to distribute a bank guarantee on blockchain.

According to Kommersant, the bank guarantee was distributed to conduct a trade finance exchange linking four parties, Raiffeisen, Belarusian firm Mozyr Oil Refinery, Gazprom Neft, and Priorbank of Belarus.

Raiffeisen operated as an advising bank for the Russian oil company, while Priorbank of Belarus, which is division of Raiffeisen bank group, issued a bank guarantee for the transaction via blockchain.

The system utilized was supposedly created by Raiffeisen, using the bank’s blockchain platform R-chain, which it introduced in 2017. As per Tatyana Ivashkova, head of documentary dealings and trade funding at Raiffeisen Russia:

“Four nodes participated in the transaction, that is, all parties were fully connected to the platform.”

Usually the banks would issue a guarantee via their inner arrangement, informing the client only after the information, Ivashkova states. Using blockchain, however, supposedly permits all members to have access to the records concurrently and permitting the contract to be finalized almost immediately as the settlement is made, curbing handling time.

Raiffeisen has already trialed blockchain formerly, issuing an electronic mortgage utilizing regional blockchain solution Masterchain — a Russian interbank software developed by main market players to shift precious data via a decentralized system. The bank then publicized its strategy to link Rosreestr, the Russian state agency that collects information on real estate, to simplify e-mortgage issuance.

A cluster of key international oil firms have in recent times declared the start of a blockchain-driven software for energy commodity trading. The decentralized network, which incorporates banks ABN Amro, ING, and Societe Generale, along with main trading houses, will legitimately start operations by the last part of November in the North Sea oil market.