A full-scale test of interbank reconciliation, with one year’s full data, has proven successful for the Italian Banking Association (ABI). This will allow the adoption of the new method for the whole sector starting 1 March.

A blockchain solution, based on 35 nodes spread across the country, was able to handle the 200 million data points generated by 200 banks over a full year. The successful results are summarised in a press release from ABI.

The project, called Spunta, is coordinated by the banking association’s research and innovation centre ABI Lab. As technical partners it lists NTT Data and Sia, and R3 with its Corda platform.

Advertisement
PostTrade 360 Nordic 2024

Tracks non-matches

“Up to now, reconciliation was based on bilateral registers with a low level of standardisation and operating processes that were not very advanced,” ABI writes.

“The implementation of a blockchain-based process using Distributed Ledger Technology for interbank reconciliations in Italy makes possible to automatically detect non-matching transactions using a shared algorithm, standardises both the process and the single communication channel, and gives the interested parties the possibility of being able to view transactions.”