Spanish banks test blockchain based smart payments
Spanish banks Santander, BBVA and others test blockchain-based smart payments.
Spanish payment service company Iberpay has announced that it has commenced a proof-of-concept (PoC) for blockchain-based smart payments with five banks – Banco Sabadell, Banco Santander, Bankia, BBVA and CaixaBank.
Headquartered in Madrid, Iberpay’s main purpose is to manage the Spanish interbank payments infrastructure (SNCE) which is specialised in the exchange, clearing and settlement of transactions between financial institutions.
In a press release, Iberpay said that the PoC involves deploying an interbank smart payments platform, which would enable the execution of payments in blockchain networks.
The objective is to enable businesses to schedule automatic payments which could be triggered by a smart contract on the basis of the fulfillment of certain conditions such as the delivery of merchandise. The blockchain-based system would enhance security, efficiency, traceability, and integrity for payments.
“A smart payment is a smart contract that governs a payment instrument and its code contains the rules and conditions for initiating and managing payments on a blockchain network,” Iberpay explains.
As per the details, the PoC, which started in October, has an expected duration of 6 months. The blockchain network has already been implemented and has six managed distributed nodes – five operated by the participating banks and one by Iberpay. Grant Thornton is the technology advisor.
“We are developing a payment instrument in Blockchain that could allow financial institutions to issue regulatoryly viable electronic money. With this new scope, we would put into production a pioneering solution at European level,” said Carol Lago, Senior Manager of Technology and Innovation Consulting at Grant Thornton (as quoted by Ledger Insights).
