Mizuho Financial Group, one of the leading financial institutions in the world, has entered into a strategic agreement with Cognizant, a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, to develop a blockchain solution for secure record-keeping of documents among Mizuho Financial Group companies across the globe. This engagement will initially focus on New York and Tokyo, where most Mizuho group companies are based.

The project aims to leverage blockchain technology for developing new work processes to make transactions and digital interactions more secure, transparent, efficient and cost-effective, thereby delivering superior experience to customers.

"We are pleased to be among the early adopters of blockchain technology in Japan to make our processes and workflows faster and more efficient," said Toshitsugu Okabe, Deputy President and Executive Officer of Mizuho Financial Group.

As part of the agreement, Cognizant will contribute its expertise in extensive financial services, consulting and digital technology to design and develop a blockchain solution for Mizuho's customers, counterparties, and group companies to exchange and sign sensitive documents in a secure and transparent manner, resulting in faster, more efficient processing and multi-party verification.

“We are impressed with Cognizant's blockchain-based solutions for financial services organizations, and their sharp focus on this rapidly evolving technology”, said Okabe.

Cognizant has been making efforts to strengthen its blockchain capabilities and harness distributed ledger technology. The company is joining forces with some of the world's leading financial services organizations to help them embrace blockchain technology.

“This agreement will pave the way for increased adoption of Blockchain technology at Mizuho Financial Group to minimize counterparty risks, speed up settlements, improve contractual performance, and enhance regulatory reporting”, said Prasad Chintamaneni, President, Banking and Financial Services, Cognizant.