The National Bank of Egypt, al-Ahly Bank, has joined the entreprise software firm R3’s global blockchain initiative of over 200 financial services firms, technology companies, central banks, regulators, and trade associations.
Blockchain, known as distributed ledger technology (DLT), is the technology that allows for the instantaneous processing of transactions across multiple distributed databases efficiently and securely.
By joining the R3 global blockchain initiative, al-Ahly will be able to make use of modern innovation technology in banking. “By joining this initiative together with world banks and companies, we will be able to closely monitor and engage directly in global blockchain developments,” Hisham Okasha, al-Ahly chairperson, said. “We can better assess the value this technology can bring to the banking industry and the impact it can have on faster and more cost-effective services to our customers for future implementation.
David Rutter, CEO of R3, said, “The addition of the National Bank of Egypt, al-Ahly, to our ever-growing Corda network enhances our engagement with the global financial industry, particularly in the MENA region. Our partners are developing cutting-edge blockchain applications on Corda that will change the way the world does business.”
Al-Ahly now can train its IT talent on R3’s enterprise-grade blockchain platform, Corda, and will have access to all research and technical meetings with multinational banks and entities, as well as be able to actively engage in existing blockchain proof of concept projects in different banking applications.
The move to join R3 comes in line with the Central Bank of Egypt’s national digital transformation strategy.
Watani International
22 April 2018