The NAB, or National Australian Bank successfully made its first Blockchain transaction of $10 from its home in Australia to Canada. Even though this is a small amount of money, it is a historical moment for the bank which plans to continue developing Blockchain for Fintech uses.
The transaction across continents
According to NAB, the transaction was between 2 employee accounts, one from Australia and the other located in Canada. The transaction itself took roughly 10 seconds to complete and is considered Proof-of-Concept to the bank.
Jonathan Davey, Executive General Manager of NAB said:
"We believe that the technology has the potential to not only deliver real-time international payments, but also improved security and efficiency of our payments systems, so this is an important piece of work,"
NAB’s Fintech activities
In 2015, the NAB joined the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and others to develop Blockchains for transferring funds and information to each other at high speeds and low cost.
Chief Executive of NAB, Andrew Thornburn said that:
“This project has given an opportunity for banks to learn together about something that could have a very significant impact on our business in future years. It could be a virtual banking system.”
To date, NAB announced on Sept 21 that they have signed agreements with Bank Leumi in Israel and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) to create an “International banking Innovation Alliance”.
“We’re excited to be working with CIBC and have already partnered with them in using Ripple’s Blockchain technology to complete international payments transfers between our banks as a proof of concept.” adds Davey.
The National Australian Bank itself is one of Australia’s four largest financial institutions in terms of market capitalization and customers. Furthermore, is joining the Fintech race with CIBC. They will be competing against multiple world banks including the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Bank of England and other banks around the world.
“We’re competing in a rapidly changing world. Everyday new Fintechs are challenging the status-quo; we have to not just keep up, but also find ways to get in front. By combining global knowledge and insights we hope to be able to accelerate learning and the development of solutions for our customers.” stated Davey.