Alfa-Bank Launches Bank-as-a-Service Platform on Waves Blockchain

Alfa-Bank and X5 Retail Group partnered to launch a blockchain liquidity management service in Russia.

According to a press release published by the bank on Sept. 12, the service — dubbed Distributed Treasury and Cash Management (DTCM) — enables Alfa-Bank’s corporate clients to manage their payments, loan and deposit products, as well as liquidity pool inside the holding.

A bank created for the user

The service is described as a “bridge to the Bank-as-a-Service (BaaS) model for corporations.” Director of the Alfa-Bank Center for Innovations Research and Development Denis Dodon explained:

“The key difference between DTCM and other offers available on the market is that we give our client not just a channel to send orders to the bank but a way to shape up business logic of the product and actually ‘create a bank’ for the client’s convenience.”

A Waves enterprise blockchain implementation

Unlike the traditional banking model, the BaaS model allows the clients to customize the service. DTCM is hosted on the Waves enterprise blockchain platform and employs smart contracts. 

X5 Retail Group CFO Svetlana Demyashkevich commented:

“The experience gained jointly with Alfa-Bank and Waves Enterprise constitutes a new benchmark in our interaction with banks: we get a unified treasury application, improve data management, and cut costs and operational risks.”

Demyashkevich also explained that X5 intends to broaden the use of Distributed Ledger Technology to optimize processes. She added that the technology will “be used in other forms of interaction with partners, such as payments, encashment and optimized collaboration with insurance companies.”

As Cointelegraph reported earlier today, major Spanish bank Banco Santander has issued what it claims is the first end-to-end blockchain bond.