Blockchain Sees Success in the Philippines as IBM Teams up with Union Bank

Blockchain has been slowly but surely changing the world by seeing adoption in several facets of life from medicine to finance.

However, different places have seen adoption at different paces and while some places have been slower at adoption, one place where it has been rapid is the Philippines.

IBM recently published a report on blockchain progress in the Philippines and the firm has seen great success there. One of such successes is their partnership with Union Bank, one of the biggest banks in the country. The partnership is to help create new supply chain finance solutions. With these new solutions, transparency and security are increased at all fronts.

The solutions will be cloud-based and will focus on trade finance transactions and according to IBM, it is the first of its kind outside of traditional banking. The solution will run on the IBM blockchain platform and will be open to all customers and partners who wish to make use of it.

Through the Blockchain, all stages of the financial supply chain will be updated by their respective parties on the blockchain and thus, each stage can be tracked and managed.

Invoice discounting and invoice selling is one of the processes that you will be carried out on the Blockchain. The process of invoice discounting, buying and selling, when carried out in the usual manner, is quite taxing and more importantly, is done on several different ledgers which means that errors can be made and accounts might not add up. When the process is streamlined on a single blockchain, human error is all but eliminated, time is saved and more efficiency is ensured.

However, invoice processes aren’t the only thing that can be done in the IBM Blockchain and the firm is actively seeking our other finance supply chain processes that can be added while working with Union bank to provide blockchain services to small and medium scale businesses.

It is not surprising that blockchain has thrived in the Philippines as much as it has. The country has taken a number of steps to make themselves accessible and conducive for blockchain businesses.

For example, the country’s Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) has just unveiled new regulations for the blockchain and Cryptocurrency industry, including guidelines for ICOs. With these new laws, CEZA is the designated body for regulating the Industry while the Asia Blockchain and Crypto Association (ABACA) will be tasked with enforcing the new laws.

“It is our goal to provide a clear set of rules and guidelines that will foster innovation yet ensure proper compliance by actors in the ecosystem. It is our hope that these set of regulatory innovations will take the digital asset sector one step closer to adoption and acceptance by institutions and the traditional financial system,” said Sec. Raul Lambino, CEZA administrator, and CEO.