TOKYO and ARMONK, N.Y., April 26,
2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mizuho Financial Group, Mizuho Bank and IBM Japan today announced they
are building a blockchain-based trade financing platform. With the
platform, Mizuho is aiming to streamline trading operations and
improve supply chain efficiency.
The timely and highly secure exchange of trade documents is
essential for stakeholders in the supply chain ecosystem.
Digitizing trade information on the blockchain can help change the
way information is shared, infusing greater trust into transactions
to make it easier for parties involved in the supply chain,
including exporters, importers, shippers, insurance companies, port
operators and port authorities, to share critical shipment data in
near real-time.
Mizuho Financial Group is working with IBM Japan to ultimately
conduct actual trade transactions based on Hyperledger Fabric, a
blockchain framework implementation and one of the Hyperledger
projects hosted by The Linux Foundation. Specifically, the project
exchanges digitized letters of credit for actual trade transactions
between Japan and overseas
clients. As the letter of credit is digitally shared among parties
including importers, exporters and their banks, it is expected to
simplify the associated document creation and exchange processes,
which have traditionally been time- and paper-intensive. Also, the
system will enable all parties to view the latest shipment status
data, which can result in reduced trade transaction and processing
costs.
"We are pleased to be the market leader in Japan in powering our processes and workflows
with distributed ledger technology and continue to work
aggressively towards expanding our portfolio of its implementations
across the group," said Daisuke
Yamada, Managing Executive officer and Chief Digital
Innovation Officer of Mizuho Financial Group. "The global expertise
in digital technology of IBM complements our vision and has opened
further avenues for us to tap the potential of distributed ledger
in transforming our processes and workflows for better enterprise
agility, transparency and regulatory reporting."
"The Mizuho Financial Group and Mizuho
Bank's project marks an important step in using blockchain
technology for actual operations in trade finance," said
Masao Sanbe, Managing Director,
Industry Sales, IBM Japan. "In working with global trade networks
to digitize documentation and processes, IBM recognizes the
potential of blockchain to help streamline financial trade
services."
This first phase of the project will lead to Mizuho conducting
actual trade transactions using blockchain in June 2017 advancing the trade financial platform
for commercialization. Mizuho continues to utilize new
technologies, like blockchain, for innovative and better financial
services for customers. Mizuho worked with IBM on another
blockchain pilot focused on currency settlement.
IBM launched IBM Blockchain on Bluemix for organizations that
require blockchain networks that are trusted, open and ready for
business.
For more information about Mizuho Financial Group, visit:
www.mizuho-fg.co.jp/english/.
About IBM
IBM is the leader in secure open-source
blockchain solutions built for the enterprise. As an early member
of the Linux Foundation's Hyperledger Project, IBM is dedicated to
supporting the development of openly-governed blockchains. IBM has
worked with more than 400 clients across financial services, supply
chains, IoT, risk management, digital rights management and
healthcare to implement blockchain applications delivered via the
IBM Cloud. For more information about IBM Blockchain, visit
http://www.ibm.com/blockchain.
CONTACT: Hannah Slocum,
1-978-877-0105, hslocum@us.ibm.com
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mizuho-financial-group-mizuho-bank-and-ibm-japan-building-trade-financial-platform-using-blockchain-300445747.html
SOURCE IBM