Big banks all around the world are looking to embrace blockchain, big time. We have already talked about what major U.S. banks and institutions are doing; today we bring you the story from Russia, where one of the country’s largest banks — Sberbank — has announced its very own blockchain lab.
The lab is meant to generate product prototypes, perform pilot tests and eventually implement blockchain-based business solutions for Sberbank Group, the press release says.
According to Igor Bulantsev, Sberbank’s Senior Vice President and Head of Sberbank CIB, blockchain can considerably reshape many business areas related to the financial market, as well as classic activities of the bank and its clients.
“Mastering, developing, and implementing the most promising technologies is an important element of our competitiveness as a bank and an indispensable part of our future as a tech company,” he said. “It is important to note that blockchain helps market participants cooperate more efficiently. Hence, Sberbank is making a contribution to the future of the banking industry and our country by launching the blockchain laboratory.”
The blockchain lab will do its work in conjunction with Sberbank’s other laboratories, while also building ties with the startup community and by participating in other alliances. It will be working to add blockchain-based technologies to existing products and services, as well as on creating new approaches to business activities.
Not the first blockchain gig for Sberbank
Like other big banks, Sberbank has been looking at blockchain for quite some time, and the launch of the lab is just the latest step in those efforts.
Roughly a month ago, the CEO of Sberbank, Herman Gref, said that Russia is “experimenting a lot” on blockchain and added that the bank will introduce some products on a “large scale” in 2018.
Even before that, in February 2016, he predicted that the use of distributed ledger technology by banks and other incumbents could be just 2-2.5 years away.
Sberbank is a member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, an enterprise-focused consortium, and has already conducted related pilot projects with Severstal and Federal Antimonopoly Services, among others.