A number of member firms of the R3 blockchain consortium have recently completed a Know Your Customer (KYC) trial.

During the four-day collaborative trial, 39 firms, including the likes of BNP Paribas, ABN AMRO, and Deutsche Bank, completed over 300 transactions on a KYC application built on R3’s Corda blockchain platform. The regulators and central banks involved included Banco de la República, Federal Reserve of Boston, Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia, and Superintendencia de Banca Seguros y AFP de Peru.

The transactions were conducted in 19 countries across eight time zones. The participating firms deployed and ran 45 nodes in Microsoft Azure, demonstrating the power of collaboration using shared business logic on the Corda network, R3 said.

During the trial, banks were able to request access to customer KYC test data, as well as communicate and manage test customer KYC data across the Corda network using a CorDapp designed and built by Synechron. On the other hand, customers were able to approve requests and revoke access and also update their test data which was then automatically updated for all banks with permission to access it.

“KYC requirements present a significant challenge to financial institutions and the process is often slow and time-consuming. As our corporate membership continues to grow, there has been increasing demand for blockchain-based KYC solutions,” David E. Rutter, CEO of R3, said. “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.”