BNP Paribas has confirmed its commitment to the distributed ledger movement in finance after completing its first 'Blockchain Bizhackathon' in the transaction banking arena.
Initiated by the bank's Corporate Trade and Treasury Solutions team, the aim was to assess real-world potential blockchain technology applications for use in both trade finance and cash management.
During two days, more than 70 participants - including internal teams, clients and startups - gathered to explore how the technology could "concretely improve both the customer experience and the efficiency of the services offered" across a range of use cases in cash management and correspondent banking, trade finance and documentation, supply chain management, commodity financing and account opening.
The bank says ideas that emerged will be put to further analysis over the course of the next year to assess their feasibility in a live business context.
Marc Carlos, head of Corporate Trade and Treasury Solutions, BNP Paribas, explains: “Our first ‘bizhackathon’ helped us to highlight the opportunities of the blockchain for our flow financing activities and our financial services to corporate treasurers, as well as its potential applications to improve our practices, review and optimise our processes, and reinforce the reliability, traceability and security of our transactions”.
The French bank, which has been exploring the potential of blockchain technology since 2011, recently took a stake in US startup Digital Asset Holdings and participates in bank-backed blockchain consortia R3 and the European CDC initiative.