Consortium startup R3 has completed a prototype for issuing short-term debt over a distributed ledger system.

Built on R3's Corda platform, the project saw participation from four banks – ABN Amro, Commerzbank, ING and KBC – and is said to be able to reduce costs and operational risk when issuing and trading euro commercial paper, while providing added transparency.

As a next step, the four banks expect to work with R3 to move the project toward possible production, though not before absorbing industry expertise from software vendors and short-term debt issuers, and seeking feedback from regulatory bodies.

ING's head of wholesale innovation, Ivar Wiersma, spoke to how the DLT prototype could remove central parties from the financial process if launched.

"It eliminates the need for intermediaries like central securities depositories and custodians which slow down operations, reduce transparency and increase costs in the overall flow," Wiersma said.

Dirk Hermans, blockchain adviser at KBC, further framed the project as a success in terms of how it allowed the group to better understand the merits of DLT advances.

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