SBI Bank, a Russian commercial banking subsidiary of Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings, has announced that it is joining the New York-based blockchain consortium led by R3, CoinDesk reported.

R3’s global network counts over 200 banks, financial services firms, technology companies, central banks, regulators, and trade associations. It also works with a number of central banks and regulators around the world. R3 offers access to Corda – an enterprise-grade distributed ledger platform for finance and commerce.

The collaboration is aimed at introducing new innovative financial services that utilize Corda in Russian market, SBI said.

"We regard blockchains as the core of FinTech innovation and are working on various measures both in Japan and abroad. Through this effort, we believe that we can contribute to the progress of the global blockchain field," the group said (as quoted by CoinDesk).

In December 2017, the Japan Bank Consortium launched a new Ripple pilot with two leading South Korean banks, Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank. The consortium was organized by SBI Ripple Asia, the joint venture between Ripple and SBI Holdings, in August 2016. Earlier this year, SBI Ripple Asia organized another blockchain consortium that involved 18 Japanese securities firms.

Last year, Japanese financial institutions joined hands with R3 and announced the successful completion of testing of a prototype that was developed by R3 Corda to streamline ISDA Master Agreement negotiation.