Shinhan Bank, the oldest commercial bank in South Korea, has launched a blockchain-based lending platform to ease the process of loans.
According to a May 27 report by local news agency Yonhap, the bank has introduced the decade-old technology to verify applicants’ necessary documents as a part of the KYC process, reducing the need for a face-face interaction.
With this step, the bank intends to boost cost and timeline efficiencies in the process of granting loans. The report also detailed that the bank has included all its affiliated institutions and banks within the blockchain network, and the data can be accessed by the affiliated parties using an encrypted one-time password.
According to the bank, it is the first such in the country.
A spokesperson from Shinhan Bank revealed that the primary focus of the bank while introducing the new technology is to boost remote access to its services and it will continue to implement other such customer-faced products as well.
Banks on blockchain
Established in 1897 as Hanseong Bank and rebranded in 1982, Shinhan Bank is also the second largest commercial bank in the country. The bank is one of the early players to bet on blockchain and implemented the technology last year to its internal processes to minimize human errors. Few media reports also surfaced that the bank introduced blockchain-based rate swap transactions.
Meanwhile, other major banks around the world are also testing the technology to make their current processes efficient. Earlier this month, that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Bank of Canada (BoC) jointly tested cross-border payments using a proprietary digital currency.
In addition, a consortium of banks is also planning to to build a settlement network based on blockchain.
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