Brazilian banks ask: Which blockchain platform shall we use?

Brazil's banking sector is busy trying to figure out which blockchain platform to adopt.

Over 15 Brazilian banks and financial institutions made joint proofs of concept with two blockchain systems: the Corda solution developed by the R3 consortium, using Microsoft's Azure cloud platform; and Hyperledger Fabric, developed by an open-source global collaborative effort hosted by The Linux Foundation.

In an interview with BNamericas, Gustavo Fosse (pictured), IT director of Brazilian banks association Febraban, said other systems will also be assessed.

"Each bank started doing its own study and assessment of blockchain. Some opted to join R3, others decided to run internal labs to develop their own platforms. But blockchain's strength is interoperability – so we need some sort of standardization," said Fosse, who is also runs IT at Banco do Brasil.

He added that Febraban created a working group where banks can share experiences with the different blockchain systems in order to scale the technology.

Speaking on a blockchain panel at the Ciab Febraban conference in São Paulo, IT executives of Itaú-Unibanco and Bradesco emphasized the need to find a common blockchain framework shared by Brazilian banks.

"Banks like Bradesco and Itaú need to have interoperability in blockchain, and we're at this stage of the conversation," said Klaus Apolinário, research and innovation analyst at Bradesco.

An Accenture study found that global corporate investments in blockchain jumped to US$1.35bn in the 2014-16 period from some US$93mn in 2009-13.

Last year, Brazilian banks invested 18.6bn reais (US$5.71bn) in technology, which according to Febraban represented 14% of all IT investments in the country.