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Traditional banking leaders are turning to Ethereum to build a blockchain-based infrastructure for the finance industry.

According to Citi global head of commodity trade finance Kris Van Broekhoven, the banking giant has joined a network of the world’s largest trade and finance institutions.

Komgo, a fintech company developing a decentralized platform for financing of commodity trades, is based on Quorum, an Ethereum-based platform that allows private and secure transactions in a peer-to-peer setting. To develop an enterprise solution that can reduce cost as it simplifies, secures and improves operations in the finance industry, Komgo teamed up with the Ethereum incubator ConsenSys.

Banking behemoth JP Morgan, which developed Quorum and maintains the platform along with more than 300 other banks, uses the Komgo for global payment processes.

Broekhoven says trade digitization is one of the primary reasons Citi joined Komgo.

“Citi chose to join Komgo because, first of all, we pride ourselves to be a leading digital bank.

Second, we are one of the largest global trade finance banks in the world, so we do take trade digitization very seriously.”

Broekhoven says Citi’s exposure to blockchain technology is helping it provide a better experience for its clientele.

“Banks and clients want a simple and elegant user experience that comes with digital tools.

They also want us to find efficiencies to reduce costs, speed-up turnaround times and reduce fraud.

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Our clients expect Citi to be one of those driving forces behind change, but we did realize early on that we could not do this on our own. So in order to change the way the market operates, it would have to work together with all the partners in the industry…

Our involvement in Komgo has helped us to learn about blockchain, about what drives users to change their behavior, and we pass these learnings on to our clients.”

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