R3 Blockchain Consortium Grows To 42 Member Banks; Focus On Non-Bank Institutions To Start In January

Financial innovation company R3 announced today that it has concluded its distributed ledger bank membership round with the addition of 12 new banks, bringing the total number to 42.

BMO Financial Group, Danske Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, Natixis, Nomura, Northern Trust, OP Financial Group, Banco Santander, Scotiabank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, U.S. Bancorp and Westpac Banking Corporation are the most recent banks to join the consortium.

Nine of the world's leading banks announced in September the formation of a partnership to design and deliver advanced distributed/shared ledger technologies to global financial markets, spearheaded by R3. The number of banks in the blockchain consortium grew eventually, totalling to 25 in October with the addition of Mizuho Financial, Nordea and UniCredit and reached 30 with the addition of BNP Paribas, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, ING Bank, Macquarie Bank, and Wells Fargo & Co.

David Rutter, CEO of R3 comments: “Partnering with a broad range of institutions has always been central to our strategy of developing distributed ledger technologies that will truly benefit the financial services industry as a whole. Securing the backing of 42 of the world’s leading banks demonstrates the level of interest in our initiative, and we now look forward to exploring collaboration with non-bank institutions and expanding our already diverse group.”

According to the press release, R3 will now focus efforts on broader engagement with a diverse range of institutions outside of the banking industry.

“Next phase of engagement to start in January and focus on non-bank institutions”, the press release reads.