Standard Chartered joins Enterprise Ethereum Alliance to ‘deepen blockchain research’

British multinational bank, Standard Chartered, has announced that it would be joining the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), a multinational technology consortium. The EEA’s charter states that its intent is to develop open blockchain frameworks to push interoperability between businesses and consumers.

Standard Chartered’s press release put forth the bank’s plans to collaborate with leaders in the industry to pursue open-source reference architectures for enterprise technology based on Ethereum. The bank also claimed that blockchain is central to banking in the digital era with real-time transactions. Chief Information Officer at Standard Chartered, Dr. Michael Gorriz, commented on the development and said,

“We are excited to be a part of the EEA and look forward to opportunities where we can collaborate to deepen blockchain research and application in the banking sector.”

The membership base of the EEA represents companies worldwide across various business sectors, while its Special Interest and Technical Working Groups work to make market requirements needed to scale the number of supported market categories in the specification.

Additionally, the release made sure to point out how Standard Chartered has been taking steps in the blockchain space in recent times, citing its collaboration with fintechs to explore financial systems’ efficiency improvements, build blockchain-enabled financing solutions for supply chain, and assist cross-border remittance services between Hong Kong and the Philippines using blockchain technology.

Further, the bank said that it had also invested in Ripple over three years ago, adding that it is currently working with the Central Bank of Thailand to aid them in creating a CBDC, while also helping the Monetary Authority of Singapore explore DLT use for payment settlements.

Recently, Standard Chartered, along with IFFCO Singapore, had announced that they had completed their first cross-border financial trade, using the dltledgers blockchain platform, involving palm oil and its extracts.