Nordea has joined the international partnership Distributed Ledger Group (DLG). The purpose of the partnership is to develop common standards and applications for using distributed ledger technology as the next generation financial services transaction network. 25 international banks, including Nordea, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Goldman Sachs, are collaborating with the company R3 in this partnership.
A distributed ledger, like blockchain, is a technology that shares information between all parties on a network. Transactions are verified and recorded in the ledger through a process of consensus, which makes the transactions encrypted, incorruptible and much faster. This technology has the potential to completely transform the financial industry and can be applied in for example FX trading, payments, issuance of securities, regulatory reporting and compliance.
The idea of the partnership is to explore distributed ledger technology, with the aim of developing commercial applications as well as establishing standards and protocols for the global financial services industry.
“We constantly strive to improve our customers’ experience with us, and as the largest bank in the Nordics it is natural for us to join an international partnership to explore new ways of banking,” says Erik Zingmark, Deputy Head of Nordea Transaction Products and member of the DLG steering committee.
Several Nordea experts will join the different work streams to collaborate on research, experimentation, design and engineering of this emerging technology to meet requirements for security, reliability, performance, scalability and compliance.
“New technology drives a fundamental change of consumer and corporate behaviour and demands. We want to build the best digital experiences for our customers, and we are right now investing heavily in new IT systems and promising new technology in order to be competitive in the new banking landscape. That is why this is a highly relevant partnership for us”, says Erik Zingmark.
