Canada’s ATB Financial joins Sovrin network as a founding steward

Salt Lake City and Calgary, Alberta, Nov. 15, 2017 -- The Sovrin Foundation announced today the addition of Canada’s ATB Financial as a founding steward. A recognized trailblazer in the bank innovation space, last year ATB Financial successfully sent one of the world’s first real-time international payments using blockchain technology, supported by SAP.

As a Sovrin steward, ATB will be an active contributor of intellectual and infrastructure resources. This includes dedicating hardware, security and network capacity to assist in the operation of the Sovrin identity network, which uses distributed ledger technology to provide the Internet with a long-missing identity layer.

“The addition of ATB as a Sovrin steward is a significant event in the development of this technology,” said Dr. Phil Windley, chairman of the Sovrin Foundation. “Earning the confidence of an organization so focused on innovation in support of the customer means we must be doing something right.”

“ATB plans to be a global leader within the blockchain space, and seeking out like-minded partners is a key strategy to get us there,” said ATB Chief Transformation Officer Wellington Holbrook. “Giving Albertans the option to control their online identity through blockchain technology is an opportunity to go beyond everyday banking to make people’s lives better. Working with the Sovrin Foundation puts us in a position to make rapid progression, allowing ATB to be amongst the first to provide this ability to our customers.”

ATB’s position at the forefront of blockchain innovation is driven in large part through the financial institution’s Transformation team, where investigations into distributed ledger technology -- commonly referred to as blockchains -- are an important area of focus. And there is good reason for ATB’s commitment to blockchain. IBM reports that within four years, 66% percent of banks expect to have blockchain in commercial production and at scale.

“There is no emerging technology with greater capacity to improve the processes and outcomes of the services we provide our 730,000 Albertan customers.” said Director of Innovation, Michael Brown. “Our size, transformation focus and innovation culture make us ideally suited to exploring these opportunities early, and scaling them rapidly. We’re excited to help the Sovrin network grow.”

Sovrin is a global public utility built to provide users -- including individuals, organizations, and connected devices -- with self-sovereign identity. Sovrin is the only identity solution with a distributed ledger purpose-built for self-sovereign identity at its core. ATB is one of several organizations spanning a diverse cross-section of organizations whose responsibility it is to ensure the network is available, public, and secure.

The aim of the Sovrin network is to enable trusted transactions by providing every entity operating on the Internet with true ‘self-sovereign identity’, which refers to a digital identity that is permanent, secure, portable, private and completely trustworthy. Stewards are governed by the Sovrin Foundation’s constitutional Trust Framework within which the ‘diffused trust model’, seeks to prevent undue influence over the network from any single organization.

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About the Sovrin Foundation
The international, non-profit Sovrin Foundation is governed by a constitutional Trust Framework that ensures its independence from government or industry influence and codifies its dedication to providing self-sovereign digital identity for all. The Sovrin network is operated by independent stewards and uses the power of a hybrid distributed ledger as a fast, private and secure framework for providing every person, organization, and connected device a permanent identity with which to transact online and operate securely in everyday life. Learn more about the Trust Framework underlying the Sovrin network here.

About ATB Financial
With assets of $48.6 billion, ATB Financial is Alberta's largest home-grown financial institution. Established in 1938, ATB is a network of 173 branches, 143 agencies, a Customer Care Centre, two Entrepreneur Centres, along with mobile and online banking. ATB's more than 5,000 team members help more than 730,000 customers in 247 Alberta communities.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b49c0867-e57d-4f10-ba1f-f9f49000857a

Judd Bagley
Sovrin.org
385.237.0162
[email protected]

Michelle Stead
ATB Financial
587.987.4213
[email protected]