Led by UBS Group, 14 financial firms including banks in the United States, Europe and Japan are using blockchain technology to settle cross-border trades. The group, which spent the last four years developing this project, invested £50 million ($63.2 million) to establish Fnality International, a company to control the bitcoin token, dubbed the utility settlement coin (USC). Trades can take a long time to clear and failed trades are common; the USC token would both carry all the information to complete a trade and be payment for it.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the project’s launch “may herald a new phase in the banking sector’s adoption of blockchain.” “A number of blockchain projects are moving out of the experimental phase and into production, a sign that the technology is becoming more integrated in the global financial infrastructure,” it adds.
See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/coalition-of-banks-launches-bitcoin-for-cross-border-trade/