JPMorgan confirms Singapore’s OCBC Bank joining its blockchain payments network

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), the second-largest bank in Southeast Asia by total assets, is the first Singapore-based bank to join JPMorgan’s blockchain payments network.

A JPMorgan representative confirmed the news to The Block on Friday. OCBC is now one of over 300 banks that are part of Interbank Information Network (IIN), a blockchain-based payments network by JPMorgan.

“The intent with IIN was always to develop a meaningful ecosystem of bank users, all focused on harnessing emerging technologies such as blockchain to better address the complex cross border payments industry,” said John Hunter, global head of clearing at JPMorgan, in a statement Thursday.

Last week, Germany’s largest Deutsche Bank also joined the IIN network, which allows member banks to exchange information related to international payments on JPMorgan’s native blockchain platform Quorum.

The list of all IIN member banks can be seen here. Notably, the list does not include some 23 banks due to "marketing restrictions."