Singapore Bank OCBC Is the New Member of JPMorgan’s Blockchain Interbank Information Network

Singapore based OCBC has joined JP Morgan’s real-time blockchain service, referred to as the Interbank Information Network (IIN). OCBC, the second-largest bank in Southeast Asia by assets, is one of the largest financial organizations in Asia-Pacific.

Overall, the network boasts of 134 member banks from the Asia-Pacific region. That represents 40% of the 343 banks that have enrolled since 2018. The largest bloc in the network is made up of 80 Japanese banks.

IIN was established as a trial in 2017 and intends to minimize the issues in the worldwide payments process. It functions on a permissioned blockchain called Quorum, built by JPMorgan and usually referred to as a different version of the Ethereum blockchain.

Regarding the growth of IIN, John Hunter, global head of clearing at JPMorgan Chase, explained that:

“The intent with IIN was always to develop a meaningful ecosystem of bank users, all focused on harnessing emerging technologies such as blockchain to better address the complex cross border payments industry. In just one year, we’ve seen IIN scale as well as expand in terms of role and capabilities – and we are excited at the growth to come.”

Notably, Deutsche bank, Germany’s largest bank, joined IIN in the first week of September. JP Morgan stated that it is hopeful of signing over 400 agreements with banks by the end of 2019, signaling the possibility of more banks joining the network in the future.

Apart from IIN and Quorum, the banking behemoth garnered attention for launching blockchain powered stable coin, named JPMCoin, in February 2019.