The National Bank of Egypt has joined enterprise software firm R3's global blockchain, an initiative of over 200 financial services firms comprising technology companies, banks, trade associations and regulators, according to bank officials. The R3 global network started as a consortium of banks looking to use blockchain technology, recently broadening its ambitions by proposing its distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform, known as Corda, used to link together a wide range of businesses. The NBE's joining of the blockchain comes in line with Egypt's national digital transformation strategy, and in support of the Central Bank of Egypt's plan to encourage the financial services industry to adopt innovative financial technologies. The new technology will enhance instantaneous processing of transactions across multiple distributed databases efficiently and securely. "By joining the initiative together with world banks and companies we will be able to closely monitor and engage directly in global blockchain developments,” said NBE's chairman Hisham Okasha, stressing that its application is to assess the value the technology could bring to the banking industry and the impact it can have on faster and more cost-effective services. David E. Rutter, CEO of R3, affirmed the addition of the NBE to the growing Corda network, is to enhance R3 engagement with the global financial industry, particularly in the Middle East and North African region. By joining the alliance, the NBE will have the opportunity to train its IT talent on R3's enterprise-grade blockchain platform, with access to all research and technical meetings with multinational banks and entities. The bank will also be able to present a project idea to the alliance to apply the technology in one of the banking services in cooperation with other regional and international banks. Headquartered in New York City and founded in 2014, R3 currently leads a consortium of more than 70 of the world's biggest financial institutions in research and development of distributed ledger DLT usage in the financial system. The bank will be able to present a project idea to the alliance to apply the technology in one of the banking services in cooperation with other regional and international banks. Founded in 1898, the National Bank of Egypt is one the country's oldest state-run financial corporations.
