HSBC has been operating blockchain-based forex payments for just ten months but has seen huge growth.
International banking giant HSBC settled $250 billion of forex trades using blockchain technology in 2018. The company has revealed the figure in a press release quoted by the Financial Times (FT) Jan. 14.
Through its proprietary blockchain platform dubbed “FX Everywhere,” HSBC handled 3 million transactions, which translated into 150,000 payments since it launched in February.
The technology allows HSBC to “conduct thousands of foreign exchange transactions within the bank, across multiple balance sheets, in dozens of countries,” FT quoted Richard Bibbey, acting global head of currencies as saying.
“FX Everywhere uses distributed ledger technology to drastically increase the efficiency of these internal flows.”
The release did not mention the overall payment volumes for the bank last year, Reuters referencing Bibbey as confirming the $250 billion represented a “small” portion of the total.
The statistics are nonetheless impressive, underscoring the opportunities for blockchain uptake in the traditional banking sector despite previous mixed reviews.
HSBC has engaged in multiple projects involving the technology recently, these including launching a joint trade finance platform in Hong Kong in November.
At October’s Money20/20 conference in Las Vegas meanwhile, HSBC’s Global Innovation Lead for Global Liquidity & Cash Management, Craig Ramsey, told audiences that both blockchain and cryptocurrency posed a “real challenge” to interbank settlements.
