Bank ABC taps JP Morgan for blockchain cross-border payment service

By Delisha Fernandes

Bahrain-based Bank ABC has introduced faster cross-border payments for corporates and financial institutions in collaboration with J.P. Morgan’s Coin Systems. Coin Systems is a blockchain-based permissioned system that serves as a payment rail and deposit account ledger and sits within Onyx by J.P. Morgan​.

The soft launch of the new payment service by Bank ABC follows close collaboration with the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB). The CBB provided support across various aspects of the initiative including integrating and scaling the innovative blockchain-based solution within the Kingdom of Bahrain’s payments landscape.

Sael Al Waary, Bank ABC Group CEO, said, “As an international bank operating across five continents, Bank ABC Group is committed to introducing innovative products to our home market and across our wider network. Offering high-value cross-border payments via the J.P. Morgan Coin Systems service, allows us to reduce traditional settlement periods considerably as well as being more cost-effective for our clients.”

J.P. Morgan’s Coin Systems team seeks to help address the complex challenges of cross border payments, simplify clients’ liquidity funding needs, and offer next generation corporate treasury services. While the offering has been launched with USD and locations involving Bahrain, US, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, additional locations and currencies, notably Euro, are in the pipeline.

Naveen Mallela, Global Head of Onyx Coin Systems, said “Bank ABC has been one of the earliest adopters of the JPM Coin offering and we are delighted to launch the first of its kind commercial payment offering between J.P. Morgan and Bank ABC using distributed ledger rails. This enables cross-border commercial transactions to be executed between Bahrain and US corridors instantly, atomically and with certainty.”

The launch of this service is part of Bank ABC’s comprehensive digital transformation programme, which serves to futureproof and diversify the Bank’s proposition with the best available banking innovations.