Bank of Ireland Announces Successful Blockchain Trial
The Bank of Ireland, in collaboration with services firm Deloitte has successfully completed a joint proof-of-concept blockchain trial. The trial demonstrated the implementation of a distributed ledger as an accessible data layer, over existing financial systems while focusing on trade reporting.
In a press release communicated to CCN.com by the Bank of Ireland today, the bank has, in partnership with Deloitte, announced the completion of a proof-of-concept blockchain trial.
The successful trial demonstrated the means for distributed ledger technology to enable banks to combine the innovation, with existing banking systems, the bank revealed.
The trial combined synthetized data from multiple systems in BOI’s Global Markets division. The data and its associated functions successfully formed an “immutable, distributed, searchable repository of information” visible across the entire trade cycle. Clients, relationship managers and regulators also took part in the trial, with their ability to view and conduct real-time auditing of transactions through a browser-based user interface.
An excerpt from the press release provided by the Bank of Ireland read:
The trial highlighted the significant benefits that a blockchain implementation can bring to financial institutions by providing an accessible data layer that sits over existing systems, connecting these systems to form a single, real-time view of the customer and transaction.
Furthermore, the conclusion from the trial saw it fit to believe that a full implementation of blockchain technology would render irregularities such as transaction histories “practically impossible.”
The research conducted through the proof-of-concept trial also revealed that many impending regulatory requirements were met.
Altogether, the research points to an improved client experience and regulatory oversight, at a lower cost than the conventional banking systems.
In a statement, David Tighe, head of innovation at Bank of Ireland said:
BOI is constantly investigating how technology and innovation can improve the customer experience, while also ensuring that systems and procedures address changes in regulatory requirements being introduced across Europe.
Speaking to Silicon Republic , Stephen Moran, innovation manager at BOI pointed to value and scalability as the next step in its foray into blockchain-based solutions. He drew a parallel to bitcoin’s latency, noting that banks could do better.
One of the biggest issues with cryptocurrencies is latency, which is seven transactions a second.
But, the underlying blockchain technology could be harnessed and scaled to 20,000 transactions a second by a bank.
“While blockchain technology can be seen as disruptive, it can actually complement a bank’s existing legacy systems,” he told the publication.
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