Those keeping tabs on the banking sector will know that several notable banks have previously expressed interest in blockchain technology. Now, however, the world’s fifth-largest bank is making some waves after starting it will deploy a blockchain payment network in 2020.



MUFG to launch blockchain-based payments in 2020



Specifically, this news comes from a recent press release, published on February 12th. The bank in question is the Japanese ”Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group” (MUFG), and they have joined forces with the US content delivery and cloud service provider Akamai on this particular project.



The blockchain-based payment system has been dubbed the ”Global Open Network” and is currently slated for launch during the first half of 2020. Moreover, the platform will supposedly employ MUFG’s established payment industry in order to establish itself as a competitive actor in the burgeoning blockchain payments sector.



Furthermore, MUFG has reportedly been working with Akamai on this for quite some time. The two companies initially announced their partnership back in May of 2018. In fact, the actors released an outline of what has now been dubbed the Global Open Network.



Nonetheless, these plans fell through – as MUFG announced a launch date for it sometime during the 2018 fiscal year. It is now quite clear that these ambitions could not be realized.



Moreover, MUFG also released plans in May of 2018 to begin trialing its own cryptocurrency coin during 2019. It is currently unclear whether these plans are still in place, or if they were shelved along with the initial 2018 deadline.



MUFG’s 2018 plans still appear to be somewhat relevant



This latest press release seems to have a more realistic timeline than that of the 2018 statement. Nevertheless, much of what MUFG shared in May still seems to be highly relevant. At the time, a press release explained that such a payment infrastructure could be employed in a variety of different use cases.



”The new payment network will be a diverse payment service equipped with an interface that can be used as a communications network, and including functions for the transfer and management of value through the blockchain,” the May 2018 press release stated.



The press release also went on to detail the numerous advantages with blockchain-based payment services.



”This will allow for a significant reduction of transaction costs for all kinds of payment services, and could support a large expansion in transaction numbers.”



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