The number of banks joining JPMorgan's blockchain-based Interbank Information Network (IIN) has grown to over 100, addressing cross-border payments in every major market, including Latin America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
IIN was piloted back in October 2017 as a way to both address delays in cross-border payments and see off the threat from new non-bank competitors in the space such as TransferWise which currently processes in excess of £3bn in payments per month.
The idea involves a mutually-accessible ledger built on JPMorgan's private blockchain Quorum that allows permissioned banks to exchange information about compliance checks and other exceptions preventing completed payments.
"Historically, correspondent banks communicate one-way, bank-to-bank, but we have transformed their interaction," says Suresh Shetty, blockchain technology lead for IIN. "When a payment detail is flagged for confirmation, different parties can interact simultaneously, requesting and sharing information."
The first two banks to sign up, Australia-based ANZ and the Royal Bank of Canada, have been trialing the service for the last 12 months and now look set to be joined by 104 other banks.
“The more banks that join the network, the more dramatic the reduction in payment delays," says John Hunter, head of global clearing for treasury services. "As the network scales, our clients' payments will be processed faster with less operational expense.”