African Banks Start to See the Potential of Blockchain
The African financial system is turning its attention toward blockchain technology as it looks for ways to help reduce the cost of banking transactions, according to The Africa Report. In the summer of this year, one of South Africa’s largest banks, Absa Bank, the South African subsidiary of Barclays Africa joined forces with the R3 Consortium to explore and develop the technology for the financial industry. At the time, it joined over 45 global banking heavyweights. That number has since dropped after Goldman Sachs and Santander recently decided to let their memberships lapse with the....
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Blockchain technology proponents are staking claims in Africa, paying special attention to banks. Six African banking institutions are making sure financial tech doesn’t disrupt their businesses by working together to connect their systems with distributed ledgers. Absa & Barclays Africa Testing Multiple Platforms Across the South African Region. One....
A group of South African banks have pushed ahead with plans to test blockchain applications in a partnership that has drawn support from key regulators in the country. As reported by local outlets IT Web and MoneyWeb, the project included teams from Standard Chartered, Absa, Rand Merchant Bank, Investec and Nedbank. Supporters of the initiative included the Financial Services Board, a major finance regulator; Strate, the country’s central securities depository; and the South African Reserve Bank. The institutions involved developed and tested a system for issuing syndicated loans via....
Africa's largest banks and South Africa’s Central Securities Depository, Strate, set up a Blockchain network that could have a far-reaching effect on the continent’s financial sector. South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and the Financial Services Board will play a role of observers. While the new working group has representatives from Standard Bank, Absa, FirstRand, Nedbank - the top four banks in Africa - and Investec which stands at the eighth position, the participation of the Reserve Bank is the most significant because the South African apex bank has been a little skeptical about....
According to law experts in South Africa, most banks are scared of blockchain for its power to disrupt their sector. A Senior Associate at Norton Rose Fulbright in Johannesburg, Nerushka Bowan, said the adoption of blockchain among banks has the potential to disrupt the global banking industry. Using the blockchain technology and its digital distributed ledger to confirm batches of transactions just as it does for bitcoin, it can take over functions such as verifying payments. She added that though banks are a trusted intermediary for the exchange of funds, they will be cut out once the....
Emurgo, the investment arm of Cardano, has partnered one of its subsidiaries with Adanian Labs, a pan-African venture studio that is focused on building a platform where African tech start-ups can thrive and access all key resources that allow them to grow sustainably. Financial and Educational Empowerment via the Blockchain According to a statement issued by Adanian Labs, the goal of this partnership arrangement is to bring financial and educational empowerment via Cardano’s blockchain platform to the billions who lack these opportunities. “This investment is part of EMURGO....