New York-based bank launches Ethereum-based payment solution for its clients
Signature Bank presses ahead with its new Ethereum project…
By Manoj Sharma for CNR
As we’ve talked about before, New York-based commercial bank Signature Bank has partnered with a New York-based global financial technology firm, trueDigital Holdings LLC, to launch a new digital payments platform. A platform that’s powered by a permissioned version of the Ethereum blockchain.
The bank generated $155.4 million in net income for the third quarter of 2018 and possesses assets worth $45 billion.
Dubbed as “Signet”, the new platform will enable real-time payments for asset management clients of the bank.
The platform leverages a version of the Ethereum blockchain, which allows clients to make payment in U.S. dollars. The goal is to make cross-border transactions as quick as 30 seconds by converting U.S. dollars into ERC-20 tokens.
Currently, only the bank’s customers can use the services, however; the bank may be able to connect to other financial institutions in the future. Commenting on the growing trend of the blockchain, Signature Bank’s co-founder, DePaolo said that “we have to do this, otherwise we’re not going to exist. If you’re not involved in the blockchain, in five years, you won’t be around as a bank”.
Signets, the digitized U.S. dollars designed by the bank, work only on the Signet platform and would not inter-operate with other apps or exchanges built on the Ethereum blockchain.
As per the post published by trueDigital’s website, the firm plans to launch paired transactions and additional currencies in early 2019. The Signet platform can be used on January 1, 2019, but only by the commercial clients that have a minimum balance of $250,000.
New York State Department of Financial Services has also approved the platform and said that “New York continues to support and help advance innovation through sound state regulation. And with products such as Signet, which provides lower-cost ways for businesses to efficiently make payments”.
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