Blockchain Payments

DBS, J.P. Morgan and Temasek to Develop a Blockchain-Based Interbank Payments Platform

DBS, J.P. Morgan and Temasek announced that they will jointly develop a blockchain-based platform for payments, trade and foreign exchange settlement.

The company named Partior aims to use blockchain solutions to enable next generation, programmable value transfer for participating banks and their clients in real-time across a common and open platform.

It has also set its sights on developing wholesale payments rails based on digitised commercial bank money to enable instantaneous settlement of payments for various types of financial transactions.

Such functionality would help banks overcome challenges presented by the current standard sequential method of processing global payments.

When complete, the platform aims to provide 24/7 infrastructure that will enable financial institutions and developers to co-create applications that support use cases such as FX Payment Versus Payment (PVP), Delivery Versus Payment (DVP) and Peer-to-Peer escrows to complement and value-add to global financial ecosystems.

To encourage broad participation across the banking industry, Partior will be actively engaging leading banks to join the platform to establish the scale required to benefit the industry.

The platform will start with a focus on facilitating flows primarily between Singapore-based banks in both USD and SGD, with the intent to expand service offerings to other markets and in various currencies.

Partior’s platform will also be designed to complement ongoing Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) initiatives and use cases.

These efforts by DBS, J.P. Morgan and Temasek build on their past work as part of Project Ubin, an industry initiative by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to explore the application of blockchain technology involving multi-currency payments and settlements.

Piyush Gupta

Piyush Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, DBS Bank said,

“By harnessing the benefits of blockchain and smart contracts technology, the Partior platform will address current points of friction.

The open platform will enable banks around the world to provide real-time cross-border multi-currency payments, trade finance, foreign exchange and DVP securities settlements on a world-class platform, with programmability, immutability, traceability built into its suite of services.”

Chia Song Hwee

Chia Song Hwee, Deputy CEO, Temasek said,

“We are pleased to work alongside DBS and J.P. Morgan to create a global platform that will have tangible impact on global payments. Finding the right approach to payments transformation using new technologies should be a priority as we take our existing infrastructure into the next stage of digitalisation and connectivity.

We’re also heartened by the interest from other banks and partners, and look forward to welcoming them on board as this new platform builds out,”