A group of Italian banks has gone live with a distributed ledger technology-based system for the reconciliation of reciprocal accounts.
Following successful testing in January and February, the Spunta Banca system is now in production, says the Italian Banking Association. Some 32 banks are already using the system, with another 23 set to follow next month and a third wave scheduled for October.
The interbank reconciliation process in Italy is linked to operations traditionally carried out by the back office, aimed at reconciling the transactions flows that generate accounting entries in the mutual accounts in Italy and manage pending transactions.
Until now, reconciliation was based on bilateral registers, with a low level of standardisation and operating processes that were not very advanced, often relying on phone calls and messages to balance the books.
Tapping technology from SIA, R3 and NTT Data, Spunta Banca uses DLT for the reconciliation process, making it possible to automatically detect mismatched transactions using a shared algorithm and to standardise processes and communications, with parties able to view the reciprocal transactions.
Daniele Savarè, director, innovation and business solutions, SIA, says: "We have created a blockchain infrastructure for the entire Italian banking sector and this will make it easier and faster to enable other use cases. Spunta Banca DLT could, therefore, be the forerunner for a series of further systemic projects in the banking and financial sector in Italy and Europe."