“JPMorgan Chase & Co. is using its custom blockchain to conduct intraday repurchase agreements totaling billions of dollars, an advance that’s helped persuade Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to join the new digital market early next year. The repo trades swapped digitized U.S. Treasury bonds for JPM Coin, the blockchain-based representation of U.S. dollars held in the bank’s account.”

“Starting in January 2021, BBVA’s unit in Switzerland will progressively launch a new service for the trading and custody of digital assets. BBVA has spent over five years exploring blockchain technology in very different areas – from international payments, trade finance to capital markets. The evolution of blockchain technology, together with the growing demand for cryptocurrency services, have helped BBVA find the right moment to explore its first solution related to the management of digital assets.”

Figure Technologies, Inc. (Figure™), a leader in transforming financial services through the power of blockchain technology, today announced it has applied for a national bank charter from the Office of the Controller of the Currency (OCC).

“San Francisco start-up Ripple can lay claim to having created one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies. Its digital tokens, known as XRP, have a total value of almost $30bn, behind only bitcoin and Ether. But, eight years after launch, Ripple is still trying to find compelling uses for the blockchain technology underpinning its currency that would justify such a high figure.”

“Ant Group, which operates the online payment platform for the world’s largest e-commerce company Alibaba, launched a new blockchain solution on Thursday to help strengthen transparency and build trust in industries that traditionally involve large numbers of participants and complex processes.”

“A blockchain infrastructure backed by the Chinese government will open its services to decentralized applications (dapp) developers on a global scale on August 10.  The move is part of China’s plan to be the one and only infrastructure provider for blockchain firms across the world. That effort resembles the country’s aggressive international expansion in other major emerging technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence.”

“A number of major Spanish banks including Santander and BBVA are testing blockchain-powered payment solutions, with a view to developing banking applications. Per media outlet Noticas Bancarias, the banks are testing the inter-bank Smart Payments platform in conjunction with Iberpay and Grant Thornton. The group of banks, which also comprises CaixaBank and Banco Sabadell, is keen to test the platform’s efficiency, traceability, integrity and compliance performance.”

“China Construction Bank, one of the largest Chinese commercial banks, has expanded its trade finance blockchain platform with new abilities, including cross-chain and inter-bank transactions, as trading volume surpasses $53 billion. Speaking in Beijing at the official launch of the upgraded platform BCTrade2.0, CCB vice president Ji Zhihong said the new platform will leverage blockchain technology to provide better financial services for Chinese exporters, according to a Chinese media report .”

“Working together with its research and development unit main incubator, Commerzbank is the first German bank to develop a blockchain-based payment solution for machine-to-machine (M2M) payments. A fully automated payment process between an electric charging point and a Daimler truck system has taken place. For this transaction, Commerzbank issued Euros on a blockchain and provided Daimler Trucks with “cash on ledger” (i.e. the money on the blockchain) to process the payment.”

“Mastercard is to demo a new blockchain-based product tracking solution during an upcoming showcase of women fashion designers. The payments giant announced on Friday that it will support “limited-edition collaborations” highlighting female designers and artists in partnership with Fred Segal Sunset and MADE.”

“Payments giant Mastercard is seeking to hire a number of blockchain professionals, including several senior roles, in an apparent effort to develop cryptocurrency and wallet products. According to the company’s career website , Mastercard is looking for a senior blockchain engineer and engineering lead , director for product development and innovation , vice president for product management and director of product management for cryptocurrency and wallets .”

“But a review of 33 projects involving large companies announced over the past four years and interviews with more than a dozen executives involved with them show the technology has yet to deliver on its promise. At least a dozen of these projects, which involve major banks, exchanges and technology firms, have not gone beyond the testing phase, the review shows. Those that have made it past that stage are yet to see extensive usage.”

“The patent, according to the report, could usher in cardless credit transactions that would see users of the system make payments using apps on mobile devices. In such a development, the invention would disrupt the traditional card system based on three intermediaries: the credit card company, a value-added network (VAN) service provider and a payment gateway.”

“Several U.S. banks and global financial institutions have dipped their toes into the blockchain world this year by implementing systems on permissioned ledgers that only invited members can join. Now, one of Poland’s 10 largest banks is taking it a step further. Warsaw-based Alior announced that it is beginning to offer a feature that will allow customers to check on the authentication and integrity of official documents they receive using the public ethereum blockchain that supports the ether cryptocurrency valued at more than $27 billion. While financial institutions have been historically more open to working with permissioned, private blockchains that they have more control over, this use of a public blockchain is among the very first.”

“A credit union consortium is working on a blockchain-based cross-border payments tool aimed at serving 89,000 credit unions globally. CULedger, a group of credit unions working on distributed ledger technology, today launched a partnership with enterprise software firm R3 on a cross-border payments tool built on its Corda blockchain platform, called CUPay.”

“Ria Money Transfer , a subsidiary of e-payment services provider Euronet Worldwide, is the latest to join Ripple’s blockchain-powered global payments network. Headquartered in California, Ria is one of the world’s largest international money transfer companies with customers in over 155 countries, more than 377,000 locations worldwide, and $40 billion in money transfer volume per year. Ripple’s blockchain payments network, RippleNet, surpassed the 200-customers milestone earlier this year. Existing members include Mizuho, Westpac, MoneyGram, Santander, Standard Chartered, UAE Exchange, and others.”

“J.P. Morgan and Microsoft Corp. on Thursday announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding to form a strategic partnership to accelerate the adoption of enterprise blockchain. Through this partnership, Quorum, developed by J.P. Morgan, will become the first distributed ledger platform available through Azure Blockchain Service, enabling J.P. Morgan and Microsoft customers to build and scale blockchain networks in the cloud.”