Raiffeisen Bank International joins R3 consortium

The Austrian bank Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) is the first Austrian bank to join the R3 consortium. The blockchain company is thus further expanding its cooperation network.

As the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International announced yesterday in a press release, on Tuesday it joined the global network of enterprise software company R3, which includes more than 160 banks, financial service providers, technology companies, central banks, regulators and trade associations.

One rationale for the consortium's appeal is its access to Corda, the distributed-ledger platform developed by R3 for the financial industry and commerce. Together with the other members, Raiffeisen Bank International now wants to work on developing proofs of concept in order to be able to use distributed ledger applications commercially.

"By joining R3, we will be able to share and collaborate with like-minded people, which will significantly increase the speed, security and usability of our own blockchain innovations. The use of technology platforms such as 'Corda' will enable us to build in-depth infrastructure know-how that will underpin future commercial blockchain applications, "

explains Michael Höllerer, Chief Representative of RBI, who is responsible, among other things, for the digitization strategy of the RBI Group.

As part of its cooperation with R3, RBI intends to focus on cash and payment services, capital markets, digital identity, investment services and trade finance.

Thus, R3 takes another step in the preparation of its Corda platform for the mass market. Last month we already talked about the idea of ​​a system for cross-border payments, which R3 had set up with the banks that had been involved so far. In addition, R3 has recently extended its collaboration with Microsoft, including announcing a stronger integration of Corda with Microsoft's Azure service to simplify the mass adoption of Corda.