French Court Clerks to Use IBM Blockchain Platform for Corporate Registry

French commercial court clerks will use a blockchain-based platform to record changes in companies’ legal status within the country. The development was revealed in an official announcement on March 14.

The blockchain network was jointly developed by IBM and the National Council of Clerks (NCC) and will reportedly be deployed starting in 2019 by the clerks operating in commercial courts across France. The blockchain platform is built on the Hyperledger Fabric framework and aims to increase transparency and efficiency in legal transactions associated with the lifecycle of companies in the registry.

Specifically, the solution will be used to record and share data related to “the exchanges of regulatory information related to companies' difficulties,” as well as “the changes of status of the company registered on the French territory.” That includes such data as change of corporate name, registration court office, establishment of branch offices, and business dissolution.

In a pilot, NCC reportedly managed to shorten the time needed to update the registry from several days to a single day. Vincent Fournier, Senior Manager Blockchain at IBM France, said that "blockchain's qualities are ideal for this use, improving the Clerks' business processes and adapting to the ever-changing nature of their missions."

IBM has released various commercial blockchain products and filed a number of blockchain-related patents. Moreover, IBM reportedly offers the greatest number of blockchain jobs, according to recent research by The Next Web.

This week, IBM partnered with blockchain consortium and credit union service organization CULedger to develop new blockchain-based solutions for the credit union industry. These solutions can reportedly improve services such as digital identity authentication, Know Your Customer compliance, lending and payments services, and other consumer processes that require authentication.

Also this month, IBM revealed two new patents targeting network security using blockchain technology and focusing on database management using the tech.