The Colombian central bank Banco de la República Colombia has partnered with R3 consortium, for the testing of the latter’s

The Colombian central bank Banco de la República Colombia has partnered with R3 consortium, for the testing of the latter’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) or Blockchain technology, called Corda. With the partnership deal, the central bank has effectively joined the R3 global consortium, which now has a total membership of more than 80 financial institutions worldwide.

Meanwhile, R3 and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have recently completed testing of the Corda system for interbank payments. The project aims to create a system in which participants or users can transact in different global markets round-the-clock, and eliminate issues due to timezone and office hour differences.

R3’s diversification plan
The partnership with various central banks is part of the software developer’s plan to diversify its consortium membership by the addition of financial regulators and government agencies. In his May 2017 strategy announcement, R3 chief executive officer (CEO), David Rutter, said that the plan is intended to expand the company’s pilot projects for Corda.

"Ultimately, our goal is to have the regulators involved from the start, right from the design through the experiment and the pilot and the prototyping.”

Pilot run
In its statement on the Corda test, the central bank claimed the test is intended to assess the effectiveness of the DLT in the management of securities exchange transactions, in the financial system of Colombia.

"It is in our interest to evaluate the benefits of this technology for the safe and efficient management of the exchange of securities in the Colombian financial system."

With the pilot run, the Corda system is expected to gain more widespread support from the Colombian government - despite the fact that Bitcoin is considered illegal in the country - especially if the test will yield positive results.