Germany’s largest financial institution, Deutsche Bank, is reportedly joining the Interbank Information Network (IIN), a blockchain-powered platform developed by JPMorgan, the world’s sixth-largest bank.
IIN’s pilot was released in 2017, with the goal of reducing the number of international payments rejected due to errors.
According to the Financial Times, JPMorgan’s blockchain-enabled project now includes a network of 320 international banks that are using the platform to exchange payments information via the Ethereum network.
Head of payments at JPMorgan Takis Georgakopoulos is hoping that Deutsche Bank will be the first of many other large financial institutions that join IIN.
Deutsche Bank is the world’s largest clearer of payments made in Euros, according to the report.
The bank’s global head of cash management Ole Matthiessen said that IIN will allow the financial institution to provide better services to its customers. He explained that the financial giant expects IIN to significantly reduce the costs associated with settling difficult transactions.
Developed on JPMorgan’s Quorum platform, the IIN network is being used to address the main challenges associated with sharing information between different institutions.
The developers of IIN also aim to speed up transaction processing times.
Georgakopoulos noted that JPMorgan is planning to finalize 400 agreements with various international banks by the end of 2019.
Earlier this year, JPMorgan’s management announced plans to launch a pilot of the bank’s own cryptocurrency, JPM Coin. It’s expected to be released by the end of 2019.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon recently noted that he supports Facebook’s controversial stablecoin project, Libra. He believes that Libra does not pose any short-term threats to the traditional banking system.
Notably, Deutsche Bank will be joining 26 other global central banks that are planning to attend meetings with Libra’s developers in Switzerland, in order to discuss potential financial stability risks.