JP Morgan has said it will use blockchain for fund transfers between international banks using a new solution called Confirm.

Confirm is an international account information validation application based on Liink, the bank’s peer-to-peer data transfer network.

Liink is based on a fork of the Ethereum blockchain and has been described as more of a “decentralized network” and less of a “central command product” by Christine Moy, head of JPMorgan’s Liink division.

Liink invited 400-plus financial institutions, including 25 of the largest 50 banks, to begin developing on the platform in October 2020.

JP Morgan claims Confirm will help reduce the number of rejected or returned transactions caused by mismatched payment details, lowering costs for both the sending and receiving banks.

Partner banks, which will initially include Taiwan banks, will be able to request confirmation of account information and receive responses directly from other participating banks “in near-real time.”

Once the information is validated, the payment can be sent through J.P. Morgan’s global clearing solution PayDirect.

The news comes as more established financial institutions explore the use of blockchain for international payments.

Citigroup’s Citi Innovation Labs and The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) recently trialled cross-border payments from the US to Latin America and the Caribbean using blockchain and tokenised money.

JP Morgan also recently joined Mastercard and UBS to pour $65 million into decentralised software developer ConsenSys, who the bank collaborates with on various infrastructure projects.

“We are delighted that JP Morgan’s leading-edge technology, combined with our global infrastructure, is helping our clients in Taiwan address unique challenges pertaining to cross-border transactions,” said Carl Chien, vice chairman for Asia Pacific and chief executive for Taiwan at JP Morgan.

He added: “We have been listening to our clients and will continue to invest in new products and services to meet their needs, as we did in the past 50 years.”

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