2016 Year in Review
2016 has been a tremendous year for our industry. To say there has been a whirlwind of achievement would be an understatement. As an organization we pride ourselves on what we have accomplished in such a short timeframe. We look towards 2017 with excitement to further deliver on the promise of this technology. Below we look back on the most memorable moments.
Awards
Institutional Investor places David Rutter in 2016 Tech 50
R3’s CEO debuts at No. 18 on Institutional Investor’s annual ranking of the most influential figures in financial technology
The Financial Times names R3 as one of the top 10 financial technology companies to watch in 2017
R3: A Year in Review
- Jan 20: Trade execution: R3 and 12 member banks used distributed ledger technology to execute transactions across the global private network in Microsoft Azure
- Mar 3: Fixed income trading. R3 tested five blockchain technologies to stimulate fixed income trading between 40 banks
- Mar 13: Charley Cooper is featured in public vs. private blockchain debate via WSJ
- May 5: Risk Magazine profiles David Rutter. R3’s CEO discusses his vision for distributed ledger technology in financial markets with Risk magazine
- Jun 16: Project Jasper is the first project in DLT supported by a central bank and regulatory group
- Jul 13: Smart Contract Templates. R3, Barclays, ISDA, Norton Rose Fullbright and UCL collaborated to address the challenges of developing master templates for smart contracts
- Aug 10: Trade financing. R3 and over 15 banks trialed smart contracts for invoice financing and letter of credit (LOC) transactions
- Aug 24: Release of the first non-technical Corda white-paper
- Sept 4: Reference data management. R3, Axoni and Credit Suisse built a distributed ledger prototype to improve data accuracy and reduce risk in reference data management
- Sept 20: R3 partners with Axoni, SIFMA and 7 buy/sell side institutions to prove how DLT can provide immutability of reference data
- Sept 26: Intel Sawtooth Lake. R3 and eight banks trialed Intel Sawtooth Lake for trading, matching and settling US treasury bonds
- Oct 20: R3’s Blockchain platform Corda developed by banks to be open-source
- Oct 21: Cross-border payments. R3, Ripple and 12 member banks trialed Ripple’s XRP digital currency for cross-border payments
- Nov 8: Asia blockchain centre of excellence. R3 collaborated with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to launch its first dedicated distributed ledger technology centre of excellence in Asia
- Nov 10: KYC registry. R3 and ten banks developed a proof-of-concept for a KYC registry that addresses the challenges associated with satisfying Know Your Customer requirements
- Nov 18: Barclays and R3 host the second Smart Contract Templates Summit
- Nov 29: R3 partners with Calypso to build the first “CorDapp”
- Nov 30: R3 Corda Ledger Is Now Open Source
INDUSTRY YEAR IN REVIEW
- Apr 2: New York Times full story on Etherem
- Jun 17: DAO is hacked and over $60 million worth of ether is stolen
- Aug 3: Bitfinex is hacked and over $60 million worth of Bitcoin is stolen
- Oct 28: Zcash launches anonymous blockchain
- Distributed Ledger Technology: beyond blockchain
NEW MEMBERS
- First China-based company and first insurance company – Ping An
- First Northern American Insurer – MetLife
- First exchange – BM&FBOVESPA
- First tech company – Thomson Reuters
- First Automotive – Toyota
- Primer Banco Hispano – Credicorp
- First African Bank – Absa Bank
- First Credit Card – Synchrony
- First Payments Services – Qiwi
- First Title Insurance – First American
Some 2016 Snaps
One of our NY employees was able to surprise his family abroad for the holidays!
