Bank ABC Joins R3 Blockchain Consortium

Announcements, Blockchain, Group | August 15, 2017 By:

Bahrain-based Bank ABC has joined the blockchain consortium led by R3, a financial innovation firm, headquartered in New York City.

Founded in 1980, Bank ABC (incorporated as Arab Banking Corporation B.S.C) is an international bank headquartered in Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain. Its network spreads across five continents, covering countries in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia.

The R3 blockchain consortium counts over 80 of the world’s leading financial institutions among its members. It is leading research and development of blockchain-inspired distributed ledger technologies (DLT) to build the next generation of financial services infrastructure.

“We are privileged to be part of this prestigious consortium of international banks and financial institutions, which is spearheading a pivotal change in the industry,” said Sael Al Waary, Deputy Group CEO of Bank ABC. “DLT and blockchain technology has added a new dimension to the evolving FinTech landscape and we are confident that this alliance will propel us further to achieve our strategic goals. We are committed to continue to provide our customers with exceptional customer service and innovative financial products. DLT will help us fulfill our promise to clients.”

“We’ve already made substantial progress in our development of distributed ledger technology, with the launch of Corda and numerous successful proof-of-concepts, our open source distributed ledger platform,” said David Rutter, CEO of R3. “The addition of Bank ABC marks a significant milestone for R3, becoming our first partner in the Middle East as we continue to expand our global network. We look forward to working with them and extending the benefits of distributed ledger technology even further.”

Earlier this year, R3 raised more than $100 million from financial institutions to develop a blockchain platform, even after losing some prominent supporters along the way. R3 plans to use the funds to continue development of Corda, its blockchain platform.