Itaú, the largest private sector bank in Latin America, has signed a partnership agreement with R3, an international innovation firm, for developing solutions from Blockchain-based distributed ledger technologies.
Blockchain, the solution behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is a successful example of the practical application of distributed ledger technologies. In addition to cryptocurrencies, this technology enjoys other applications permitting new business models, agility and efficiency in a secure decentralized environment, ensuring traceability of transactions and the authentication of parties concerned.
Itaú is the first company in Latin America to join the R3 consortium, which consists of more than 40 of the largest financial institutions in the world for developing state of the art commercial applications for the market.
The teams at R3 include veterans from the financial sector together with Blockchain and cryptocurrency specialists. These professionals collaborate with partner companies in the consortium in research, experimentation, design and product engineering for advancing distributed ledger technology. This collaboration takes into consideration the idiosyncrasies of the banking systems in terms of identification, privacy, security, scale, interoperability and integration with legacy systems.
“We have joined the R3 consortium in order to contribute to the international drive for development and implementation of innovative solutions based on distributed ledger technology”, says Márcio Schettini, general director for Technology and Operations at Itaú. “We are convinced that these innovations will bring benefits to our customers and real gains in efficiency for the sector as a whole. We are anxious to operate together with R3 and other financial institutions in Latin America to expand the benefits that distributed ledger technology offers”, the executive concludes.
David Rutter, CEO of R3, comments: “It is a pleasure to welcome Itaú Unibanco to expand our global network of partners in Latin America. Distributed ledger technology has the potential to break down geographic barriers and to unite these counterparties worldwide in a more efficient, secure and transparent financial structure. Itaú will be an important partner for R3 as representative for the region”.