South African Bank Joins R3 Blockchain Consortium

One of South Africa’s largest banks has joined the global blockchain consortium led by R3CEV.

By Stan Higgins

Jul 12, 2016 at 2:20 p.m. UTC

Updated Sep 11, 2021 at 12:22 p.m. UTC

Stan Higgins

One of South Africa's largest banks has joined the global blockchain consortium led by R3CEV.

Absa Bank, a subsidiary of Barclays Africa, announced today that it would be joining the 40-plus consortium, which includes a range of banks and non-bank financial institutions worldwide. Recent participants have included Chinese bank Ping An and the financial arm of automaker Toyota.

The partnership is said to include an effort to develop a broader working group within South Africa focused on regional distributed ledger networks, with the goal of creating "the continent’s first distributed ledger-based banking solution".

Andrew Baker, CIO for corporate and investment banking at Barclays Africa, said in a statement:

"We see huge potential for financial institutions in Africa to embrace disruptive technologies like blockchain, and use them to empower individuals and improve the lives of their customers. However, its true value will only be realized if we work together to co-develop and share solutions to common problems."

The consortium has spent the last year both adding new members as well as testing blockchain solutions in trials involving multiple banking participants. R3 announced its own distributed ledger solution, dubbed Corda, in April.

Absa Bank was not immediately available for comment when reached.

Image Credit: Nataly Reinch / Shutterstock.com

Read more about

South Africa News R3CEV Companies

DISCLOSURE

Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.

The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.