According to latest reports, Sberbank, one of the largest banks in Russia, has joined Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger project –a collaborative effort created to advance blockchain technology.
Bankir.Ru reported that First Deputy Chairman of Sberbank Lev Khasis and Hyperledger project CEO Brian Behlendorf signed an agreement during the ongoing annual banking and financial conference, Sibos 2016.
"Joining the project generates new technological agenda of the bank and opens for us access to international expertise and cutting-edge developments in the field blockchain”, said Khasis (loosely translated). “We have an opportunity to directly influence the development of the platform and interact with its key developers."
The bank will have a “dedicated team” of developers working with Hyperledger. Khasis told Daily News that the bank sees many opportunities and use cases for the blockchain technology both within and beyond fintech, Banking Technology reported. He expects one use case to go live in the next 12 months.
Earlier in June, reports suggested that the bank plans to complete the creation of a new blockchain-based IT-platform by the end of 2018. The head of Sberbank Herman Gref said that the bank is interested in all the technologies that are somehow related to finances.
“Most of these breakthrough technologies - is, of course, the blockchain technology”, he said (according to loosely translated version). “What we are doing now - our new platform - will allow a drastically improve all services. Our task is to make so that all you ever needed to come to the bank."
Sberbank is the latest to join Hyperledger project, which has over 80 members including the likes of IBM, J.P. Morgan, ANZ, BNY Mellon, Thomson Reuters, Blockchain and many others. Earlier this week, Hyperledger announced the addition of five new members which includes Aesthetic Integration, BLOCKO Inc., Hangzhou Fuzamei Technology, PDX Technologies and Zhejiang Shuqin Technology.
