The trades, executed by 10 companies via four banks on the we.trade platform – a consortium of Deutsche Bank, HSBC, KBC, Natixis, Nordea, Rabobank, Santander, Société Générale and UniCredit — have been described as the first commercially viable open account trades to harness blockchain technology.
The size of the transactions made by the unidentified European companies from the manufacturing, food, components and residential building sectors varied, but was typically less than £50,000.
One of the key elements of the platform is the ability to execute multiple transactions using smart contracts that allow clients to secure payments, settle trade transactions and automatically request financing or guarantees based on defined events and triggers.
Built on the IBM Blockchain Platform, we.trade operates across 11 European countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
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Roberto Mancone, |
Deployment to customers in Europe will continue through the distribution channels of existing and future bank members, explains chief operations officer Roberto Mancone.
“As we mentioned at Sibos in Toronto in October 2017, after launching in the market we are now looking systematically to expansion beyond Europe in 2019,” he says.
