Recently the largest bank in Russia and Eastern Europe, Sberbank, announced the opening of a blockchain technology laboratory for the development of solutions based on distributed accounting for the banking sector.
The bank with its main office in Moscow made the announcement recently in an official press release. In the laboratory they will promote the generation of ideas regarding blockchain applications and materialize them in prototypes of products that will be tested in different pilots. The commercial solutions that are released there will be implemented in Sberbank Group.
The blockchain laboratory will be integrated by experienced specialists in the area, who will also provide assistance for educational programs related to distributed accounting. Similarly, the laboratory will be in coordination with the other laboratories of the banking institution, as well as provide its services to other companies through alliances and associations.
The senior vice president of Sberbank, and head of Sberbank CIB, Igor Bulantsev noted that blockchain technology can reform various areas of the financial sector, including banking:
Blockchain can significantly restructure many commercial areas related to the financial market, as well as the classic activities of the bank and our customers. Mastering, developing and implementing the most promising technologies is an important element of our competitiveness as a bank and an indispensable part of our future as a technology company.
Igor Bulantsev
Senior Vice President, Sberbank
Bulantsev added that the distributed accounting technology "helps market participants to cooperate more efficiently" and emphasized that Sberbank's blockchain laboratory represents "a contribution to the future of the banking industry and our country".
It should be noted that Sberbank, with approximately 20,000 offices and 242,000 employees, has already created more than 20 blockchain pilot projects, some of which have already been implemented. In fact, towards the end of December last year, Sberbank together with the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) was working on a project to create a blockchain-based interaction platform that can be used by the government entity.
Also at the beginning of the same month, Sberbank executed the first test transaction with distributed accounting technology in the Russian banking sector, using a blockchain platform based on IBM Hyperledger Fabric. While, Herman Gref, the president of the aforementioned bank stated that he foresees a complete implementation of blockchain in the next 8 years in Russia, adding that by 2018 the first commercial developments would take place.