China Construction Bank Announces Updates of Blockchain Platform After $50B Transacted

One of China’s four largest banks, China Construction Bank (CCB) has officially released the second version of its blockchain platform for trade finance, reaching 360 billion yuan ($50 billion) in cumulative transaction volume. 

CCB announced the release of “BCTrade 2.0,” focusing on digitizing trade and financial services between 54 domestic and overseas CCB branches and 40 external organizations. Reported by Xinhua news, these organizations include state-owned banks and foreign banks.  

Starting in 2017, CCB’s project claimed to be the first to use blockchain for domestic letters of credit, forfaiting and international factoring. In March this year, CCB announced that the blockchain was responsible for the 200 billion yuan transacted in 2018 with 40 domestic and financial participants involved.  

The platform allows trading and financing activities, including accounts receivable and trade financing. Aiming to provide a regulatory system for trade finance and to enable real-time monitoring of financial activities, the second version of the blockchain was publicly announced after having reached 360 billion yuan in transaction volume. Ji Zhihong, the Vice President of CCB said that the “distributed storage, transaction traceability, and non-tamperability" characteristics of blockchain are highly compatible with trade finance. 

CCB’s platform is one of many blockchain trade finance initiatives in China. A project collaborated between CITIC and Bank of China announced that it had processed 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) with its forfaiting blockchain. 

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