R3, iGTB Partner On Corda-Powered Corporate Finance Solutions

Banking technology provider iGTB (Intellect Global Transaction Banking) is collaborating with enterprise blockchain software company R3 to develop an array of corporate financial services technologies for financial institutions.

With a focus on tools like banking, payments and cash management, and trade and supply chain financing, iGTB and R3 will create financial services solutions using R3’s Corda blockchain platform, the companies said in a press release Wednesday (Oct. 24).

In a statement, iGTB CEO Manish Maakan said the companies will collaborate to explore how iGTB’s existing banking solutions can wield Corda to address key issues in trade finance like bottlenecks in corporate sales for banks. R3 CEO David E. Rutter added that iGTB is “ideally placed to develop solutions cross cash management, payments, trade and supply chain finance on Corda” thanks to its presence across a range of transaction banking solutions.

This week iGTB also announced a partnership with trade digitization firm Bolero in another push to develop enhanced trade finance solutions.

Another partnership struck earlier this year saw iGTB collaborating with Santander to enhance the bank’s corporate payments infrastructure. In a July announcement, Santander said it was implementing iGTB’s Intellect Payment Services Hub into its Corporate and Investment Banking unit in an effort to enhance visibility of incoming and outgoing payments for its corporate clients.

R3, meanwhile, has also been working with banks this year as financial institutions develop a Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance system on the Corda platform. That initiative includes BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank, and testing of the solution earlier this year showed the solution was able to facilitate 300 transactions across 19 countries.

“Not only does this project demonstrate how blockchain can allow institutions to retain control of and manage their own identity, but it also validates the design choices we made in our approach to privacy on Corda,” R3’s Rutter said at the time.

R3 is part of an increasingly competitive market for financial services blockchain innovation. In September the firm settled a longstanding legal dispute with one of its rivals, Ripple, over Ripple’s cryptocurrency XRP.