The consortium's members comprise of over 55 of the world’s largest financial institutions. Through collaboration between members the consortium is developing innovative and groundbreaking commercial applications. BBL President Chartsiri Sophonpanich, President of Bangkok Bank, said that the bank is keen to learn, share and participate in the group. “The addition of Bangkok Bank – one of Thailand’s major banking players – is a further milestone for R3. Asia is a key region for us as we expand our network of consortium members and continue to develop truly global applications for this groundbreaking technology," said David Rutter, CEO of R3. R3 is leading a consortium of over 55 of the world’s largest financial institutions to develop ground-breaking commercial applications for the financial services industry that leverage the appropriate elements of distributed and shared ledger technology. Operating in New York, London and San Francisco, the R3 team is made up of financial industry veterans, technologists, and new-tech entrepreneurs, bringing together experts from many FinTech fields. Earlier this month, R3 and over 15 of its consortium member banks successfully completed two prototypes that demonstrate how distributed ledger technology can address the key challenges facing the US$45 billion global trade finance industry.
Bangkok Bank has become the first Thai institution to join the R3 blockchain consortium. The bank is one of a number of financial institutions that have joined R3, which aims to create an open and interoperable distributed ledger for cross-border payments.