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Three of Japan's largest banks have canceled a blockchain peer-to-peer money transfer service project.
Japan's three megabanks, namely Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group, said the joint venture was a duplication of their individual efforts. They considered it unnecessary to continue, according to the Nikkei Asian Review.
According to the Japanese publication, the joint initiative would have allowed their clients to send and receive funds with the help of email addresses or mobile phone numbers via virtual accounts related to their bank accounts.
Japanese megabanks badociate with Fujitsu
As previously reported by CCN, the project was announced in 2017 in partnership with Fujitsu Technology Corporation. The Japanese technology giant was responsible for developing blockchain solutions.
The 3 Japanese megabanks unite in a chain of chains for the "field test" of P2P remittances https://t.co/1dOtOnDweG
– CCN.com (@CryptoCoinsNews) October 11, 2017
In addition to a cloud-based blockchain platform, Fujitsu also developed a smartphone app for peer-to-peer money transfers. The objective was then to link the two solutions to the bank accounts of each of the three banks.
The tests of the initiative were conducted in 2017 and it was planned to conduct more comprehensive testing last year.
Mizuho and MUFG both develop "Stablecoins" to reduce transaction costs
Initiatives undertaken by financial institutions that would have competed with the joint venture include the development of digital currencies. Mizuho Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group each develop their own digital currency, named respectively J-Coin and MUFG Coin.
In the case of Mizuho Financial Group, the first test of its digital currency was completed in late 2016. The financial institution launched the initiative in partnership with IBM Japan. Mizuho's goal with J-Coin is to reduce money transfer costs. The J-Coin is basically a stable business note whose value is indexed to that of the Japanese yen on a one-to-one basis.
Japanese MegaBank Mizuho is testing its own digital currency https://t.co/iMq6SwX7dw pic.twitter.com/NrKllZ01eT
– CCN.com (@CryptoCoinsNews) December 8, 2016
Mitsubishi's MUFG was announced earlier in 2016 and, as with J-Coin, the goal was to reduce transaction costs. And in the same way as the J-Coin, the MUFG is also a yen-indexed stablecoin.
Japanese giants in the banking sector members of the R3 Consortium
At the time, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group President Nobuyuki Hirano said MUFG Coin would seek to mitigate cryptocurrency issues such as volatility.
[Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group plans to] overcome the problems of [existing] virtual currencies and create a very useful currency.
In addition to working on their own digital currencies, Japanese financial institutions have also joined other blockchain global initiatives. Mizuho Bank and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group are among the banks that joined the R3 consortium.
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