The banks in Italy will now be using the Corda blockchain to bolster the double-verification transaction logs. This approach by the financial institutions of Italy is an inclination of mass blockchain adoption. The head of the Italian Banking Association (Associazione Bancaria Italiana or ABI), Silvia Attanasio, stated that fundamental technology of data exchange and interbank reconciliation had to change.

People who do not understand what interbank reconciliation is, “A bank reconciliation is the process by which the bank account balance in an entity’s books of account is reconciled to the balance reported by the financial institution. Any difference between the two figures needs to be examined and, if appropriate, rectified.”

The first blockchain trial of interbank reconciliation was concluded back in 2018. The second major bank of Italy went forward with this initiative, and after a while, 13 other banks entered the race. As of now, 85% of Italian banks, 55 in total, implement Corda blockchain for bestowing interbank data transfer. The third phase of the test will start in October, and the board intends 80 to 100 banks to register on the platform.

As per Attanasio, the previous reconciliation framework was boisterous and very random. Ever since the system operates on Corda, the reconciliation only takes a day compared to what it took before changing to Corda. The Italian financial system works under the Interbank Agreement passed in 1978; it was updated last year. The agreement involves administering data standardization, Italy set a data within which they were about to integrate to the standard. NTT Data, an Information Technology Company, is the developer of the network and SIA, a bank technology company oversees it.

Use of blockchain

The application of blockchain technology has been growing over the last few decades, and it is offering real-time solutions to countless financial concerns.The global financial entity, Visa, currently declared the support for blockchain and other digital assets for the ease of consumers.

Attanasio stated in a statement, “If we failed in this process, the worst thing that could happen was to have a problem in the information exchange between banks. Clients are not affected; the companies are not affected. It was a natural sandbox.” Nevertheless, the board was ready to analyze the database while opposing Corda, but it was not open to banks managing certain data on separate ledgers.