Inter-Bank Payment System on Enterprise Blockchain Platform

Abstract

Real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) is the cornerstone of inter-bank payment business. Spectacular expansion of large-value wholesale payment has forced financial institutions to implement inter-bank payment systems (IBPS) with higher level of throughput, security, and stability. This promising approach to orchestrating IBPS utilizes emerging blockchain technology, which has been successfully harnessed to deliver distributed trust and confidentiality for diverse financial service applications. However, blockchain is not a silver bullet for IBPS, which faces multiple challenges incurred by high value transactions. Financial institutions expect not only a simple migration from traditional RTGS to a blockchain platform, but a decentralized system with better confidentiality, instruction settlement finality, liquidity saving mechanism, and more efficient methods of gridlock resolution. In this paper, we introduce an end-to-end IBPS prototype based on Hyperledger Fabric enterprise blockchain platform. The prototype supports gross settlement, gridlock resolution, and reconciliation for inter-bank payment business. As a preliminary research of Ubin Project, this prototype is proved to provide higher level of payment settlement service.