Sberbank and SWIFT have signed a memorandum of cooperation to develop and market Fintech products created and promoted by SWIFT. Sberbank is Russia’s largest bank and holds almost one third of aggregate Russian banking sector assets, it is the key lender to the national economy and the biggest deposit taker in Russia.
Specifically the two companies agreed to coordinate steps to further the application of Blockchain technology in interbank settlement platforms. Sberbank has joined the international group of financial institutions testing the prototype of SWIFT’s DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) platform, which has been developed as part of SWIFT Global Payments Innovations (GPI). The need for SWIFT to migrate to a Blockchain based ecosystem otherwise its services risk being sidelined by better technology.
Additionally, Sberbank will assess the potential of using the SWIFT AMH (Alliance Messaging Hub) system as a technological solution to facilitate the processing Sberbank Group’s internal and external payment flows and other financial transactions.
The announcements took place at Sibos which is an annual event organised by SWIFT.
