A leading bank in Spain known as CaixaBank, is now providing its customers access to blockchain technology. The bank added a finance platform (We.trade) based on blockchain to its services on January 3.

We.trade was introduced in 2017, and the blockchain technology of IBM handles it. The development of the platform was through the consortium of 15 financial institutions across Europe.

The platform is digital and trustless, used for the verification of financial information. Its open API architecture allows the tracking and tracing of goods shipped by any of the 400 logistics firms across Europe utilizing it.

The platform utilizes blockchain for the facilitation of suppliers’ and buyers’ transaction process on a single, shared platform. It involves the generation of smart contracts for linking the trading activity with the financing or payment which does not allow any default risk for firms, and capable of increasing business globalization.

In October 2018, CaixaBank joined the We.trade consortium, thereby allowing it to provide access to We.trade for traceability and security of transactions.

The bank released a press release in recent times and said that the solution is particularly to monitor real-time transactions, thereby increasing transparency all through the process. It continued that the transactions’ security and trust element is quite high because the platform is only accessible to customers that the member banks verify and authenticate.

According to IBM in a blog post, the banks’ aspect of the We.trade network is trying to find a solution to the challenge of granting small-sized and medium-sized businesses access to trade financing. Such will allow the growth of their businesses, expansion into new markets and building of new trading partnerships.

IBM maintains that We.trade complies with the requirements of the countries where each bank operates, including the European Union. It also complies with complex international regulatory requirements, as well as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the member banks’ individual requirements.

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