A subsidiary of Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, has joined a blockchain-based platform for commodity trade finance. Sberbank Switzerland AG has signed an agreement with Swiss trade finance platform Komgo to apply its blockchain-powered trade finance service. Representatives from Sberbank Switzerland told Cointelegraph that the collaboration with Komgo addresses the growing digitization of trade finance. Evgeny Kravchenko, head of trade finance at Sberbank, outlined that commodity trade finance is a strategic business of Sberbank Switzerland. According to the executive, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States countries are the company’s key markets, while Sberbank Switzerland also supports trade flows globally. “In …
Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has officially launched its first branch in Russia on Thursday, Dec. 6, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph today. The Moscow-based exchange, dubbed Huobi Russia, is established in partnership with the state-owned Russian Development Bank’s (VEB) Digital Transformation Center and supported by Huobi’s regional exchange partnership program, Huobi Cloud. The Center of Digital Transformation was created by VEB to promote blockchain and other crypto-related technologies, as its website states. Back in September of this year, Huobi first joined Russia’s VEB Innovation Fund and became a resident of the Digital Transformation Center to share experience …
The Union Cabinet of India has approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the collaborative research of distributed ledger technology (DLT), local news outlet ANI reported September 12. The Union Cabinet is the supreme decision-making body in India consisting of cabinet ministers and led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi. The MOU, which is a cooperative initiative under the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism, aims to foster better understanding of DLT and define areas where the technology can be deployed to improve operational efficiency. The research will be jointly conducted by the Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) and banks from …
Sber, the Russian government-backed company and the largest bank in the country, is launching a blockchain exchange-traded fund (ETF) to track the performance of major crypto companies such as Coinbase and Galaxy Digital. Sber Asset Management officially announced the news on Thursday, stating that the new ETF is linked to various blockchain and crypto industry firms, including hardware and software providers for mining and issuing crypto assets. Called “Sber — Blockchain Economy,” the fund is set to trade under the ticker SBBE and will track the eponymous index developed by Sber’s investment subsidiary SberCIB. SBBE’s portfolio will include some of …
Moscow Credit Bank has issued a blockchain-based bank guarantee denominated in Chinese currency, claiming the product is the first in the country. The bank guarantee exceeds 100 million Chinese yuan — or nearly $144,600 USD at time of publication. According to a statement, the transaction was performed through the Masterchain blockchain platform, andthe Russian national blockchain network created to transfer digital assets between its participants. As one of the advantages of performing the transaction on-chain, the financial institution mentioned that "the beneficiary does not need to wait for the paper version and make a separate request to the bank to …