IBM partners with BTMU to test blockchain

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) announced its partnership with the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) to examine the design, management and execution of contracts using blockchain technologies.

The pilot project will begin by automating corporate transactions between the two institutions.

This is one of the first projects built on the Hyperledger Project fabric, which is an open-source blockchain platform, to use blockchain for real-life contract management on the IBM Cloud.

IBM said in their press release that together with Japan’s largest bank BTMU, they have created a prototype of smart contracts on a blockchain to improve the efficiency and accountability of service level agreements in multi-party corporate interactions.

Mr. Motoi Mitsuishi, deputy chief executive officer of BTMU Asia & Oceania and general manager, Singapore branch and corporate banking division for Asia & Oceania said on the occasion: “Blockchain technology has the potential to change not only the financial world, but also other areas of the business world, leading to improved efficiency of the end-to-end business process.”

IBM Industry Platforms senior vice president Bridget van Kralingen commented: “IBM continues to invest billions of dollars into research on emerging technologies that hold transformative potential for our clients. Blockchain will reinvent complex multi-party and contract-based business models, especially in banking and financial services.”

“This expands our expertise in helping clients identify the right projects and build out blockchain solutions to solve day-to-day business problems more effectively. We are delighted to be expanding the scope of our partnership with BTMU with this blockchain initiative,” Bridget van Kralingen added.

BTMU and IBM aims to manage agreements between them with the new system by the end of 2017.