Global Bank BBVA Issues Worlds First Loan using Blockchain for €75m ($91m)
Spain’s second largest bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), becomes the first to issue a corporate loan using blockchain technology, developed on the Hyperledger platform.
The €75 million pilot was completed with Spain’s largest technology consultancy firm Indra.
BBVA’s private ledger technology, enabled both bank and borrower to track progress from negotiation through to signing the loan. Interestingly, upon completion, they then registered the ‘transactions documents’ on Ethereum’s public blockchain.
BBVA Head of global finance for corporate and investment banking, Ricardo Laiseca, explained that this loan using blockchain was a:
“significant advance in the exploitation of blockchain technology and the way private and public blockchains can interact.”
The process of a corporate and syndicated loan, involves a myriad of financial systems and a range of people. The potential of a secure ‘single’ blockchain based system to be visible by all parties, significantly speeds up transactions and lowers cost.
BBVA chief executive, Carlos Torres Vila, confirmed that they have “several more transactions in the immediate pipeline” explaining that:
“The loan process was cut from days to hours”. He said “Blockchain can offer clear advantages for all sides in the corporate loan market in terms of efficiency, transparency, security”
BBVA has been outspoken about it’s ambitions with blockchain technology, since working with Ripple to complete a money transfer from Spain to Latin America last year, in a matter of seconds.
Both BBVA and Indra also participate in a number if international blockchain consortiums such as R3, Hyperledger, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and Spain’s Alastria
BBVA will be reporting its first quarter revenues this Friday, 27th April 2018.
