Report: Bank of China Joins New Blockchain Platform for Property Buyers

Published at: Feb. 20, 2019

Property development firm New World Development and the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) will jointly launch a blockchain platform for home buyers with the Bank of China reportedly being the first bank user. The news was announced by local news outlet the Standard on Feb. 20.

The platform reportedly aims to replace paperwork operations — such as signing the Provisional Sale and Purchase Agreement or a mortgage application — with digital authorization. This will supposedly allow users to send the purchaser's authorized, encrypted and digitally signed provisional agreement to selected banks.

Integration of distributed ledger technology (DLT) into organizations’ internal processes is estimated to help reduce banks’ operating costs by 15 to 60 percent, while the platform itself expects to see an increase in the number of users.

ASTRI CEO Hugh Chow reportedly said that DLT could reshape property market operations, resulting in efficient and flexible property buying procedures, while the HKMA argued that DLT "allows all [...] users in the ecosystem to share customer information and transaction histories securely over a distributed data infrastructure, without compromising customer privacy or sensitive business information."

Last August, Bank of China — one of the four largest state-owned banks in China — partnered with financial services corporation China UnionPay (CUP) to jointly explore blockchain technology applications for payment systems. Within the initiative, CUP was set to build a unified port for mobile integrated financial services, where cardholders will be able to use a QR code to spend, transfer and trade on a cloud flash payment app.

In January, China’s self-regulatory bank organization, the China Banking Association (CBA), announced it will launch a blockchain-based platform to improve efficiency across the sector. The project, formally dubbed the “China Trade Finance Inter-bank Trading Blockchain Platform,” aims to use blockchain to target trade finance, transactions and other financial services.

China has been actively adopting blockchain technology in various sectors. Recently, the country’s government issued the “Guiding Opinions on Rural Service Revitalization of Financial Services.” The new framework aims to use emerging technologies like blockchain to “improve the identification, monitoring, early warning, and disposal levels of agricultural credit risks.”

Tags
Adoption
Blockchain
China
Banks
Real Estate
Peoples Bank Of China
Related Posts
Chinese State Bank Uses Blockchain to Issue Digital Mortgages Worth $1.3 Billion
The Chinese state-owned Bank of Communications (BoCom) has successfully issued $1.3 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) using blockchain technology, national securities outlet China Securities Times writes Wednesday, September 27. BoCom — the fifth largest bank in China according to S&P Global recent stats — used an independently developed platform called Juicai Chain to issue 9.3 billion yuan worth of RMBS, which is approximately $1.3 billion. By using blockchain, all parties participating in the loan are able to track assets, manage cash flow, and perform other business operations. As China Securities Times writes, the use of blockchain will help reduce …
Adoption / Sept. 27, 2018
China: World’s Fourth Largest Bank by Assets Trials Blockchain Loans Backed by Land
The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), the world’s fourth-largest bank by assets, has issued its first loan on blockchain, local news outlet Financial News reported July 31. State-owned ABC, which counts itself among China’s “Big Four” lenders, revealed it had issued a loan worth around $300,000 backed by a piece of agricultural land in the Guizhou province. According to Financial News, the bank will “buil[d] blocks with local people, pilot land and resources bureaus, and agriculture and animal husbandry bureaus,” through the blockchain system, adding that the loan aimed to “support the local tea industry.” The blockchain project received participation …
Adoption / July 31, 2018
Huobi Launches Global DeFi Alliance To Merge East and West
Huobi DeFi Labs has launched a global DeFi alliance, which is set to establish universal protocol standards for the DeFi space and improve communications within the DeFi ecosystem. The alliance will also conduct research on emerging DeFi protocols to help avoid future crises in the community. The alliance’s inaugural members are MakerDAO (MKR), Compound (COM), Nest (NEST), and dYdX (dYdX). In an interview with Cointelegraph, Huobi’s chief investment officer Sharlyn Wu said, “We have to partner with the entire ecosystem. But we want to work with the best of projects out there and make sure our users have access to …
Adoption / Aug. 17, 2020
Chinese Blockchain-Based Pilot Platform Completes First Cross Border Trades
Recently, a blockchain-backed cross border platform pilot was implemented in the Chinese city of Qingdao. The companies involved have now made their first trades with partners in North America and Southern Asia. As reported on April 22 by local newspaper, Sina, the companies are praising the pilot program, and claim that the city’s banks will continue to improve the service. Trades made with other countries via blockchain About 37 Qingdao businesses have done business with foreign enterprises through the blockchain platform, located in the United States, Mexico, India, and a number of other countries. Sina reported that the pilot platform …
Adoption / April 22, 2020
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China To Embrace Blockchain Technology
The Chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has said that the bank will focus on blockchain technology development, BiaNews reported September 1. Founded in 1984, the ICBC is reportedly the largest bank in China with over 5,000 corporate and 530 million personal customers. In 2017, the bank focused on the construction of “intelligent banking” and “accelerated deployment in the field of financial technologies.” The ICBC Chairman Yi Huiman reportedly said that the financial institution will focus on innovations in cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and Internet of Things (IoT). According to BiaNews, the …
Adoption / Sept. 4, 2018