Three more banks have announced joining the Distributed Ledger Group (DLG) and R3 Blockchain consortium that include Mizuho Bank, UniCredit and Nordea.

What started out as 9 banks has already grown to a total of 25 major financial companies collaborating within the scope of the R3 Consortium. The roster now consists of Barclays, Bank of America, BBVA, BNY Mellon, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Citi, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Morgan Stanley, Mizuho Financial Group, National Australia Bank, Nordea, State Street, Royal Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Scotland, SEB, Societe Generale, Toronto-Dominion Bank, UBS, and UniCredit.

R3 CEO, David Rutter, commented:

"We have been inundated with interest in this project from banks across the world since launching with an initial nine institutions just over a month ago. An emphasis on working with the market has always been a key differentiator of our project from day one, and so we are delighted to broaden the network once again and grow the resources we have to research and develop this exciting technology.”

R3 CEO, David Rutter

David Rutter was formerly the head of electronic trading at ICAP Electronic Trading, one of the world's largest interdealer brokers. He has been working on bringing together traditional banks and Bitcoin’s blockchain technology for over a year, after initially looking at becoming an investor in Bitcoin-related businesses.

“New technology drives a fundamental change of consumer and corporate behavior and demands,” said Erik Zingmark, Deputy Head of Nordea Transaction Products and member of the DLG steering committee, in an announcement. “We want to build the best digital experiences for our customers, and we are right now investing heavily in new IT systems and promising new technology in order to be competitive in the new banking landscape. That is why this is a highly relevant partnership for us.”

DLG is an alliance of the largest global banks coming together to focus on building a next generation financial transaction network, while R3 (R3CEV LLC) is a New York-based blockchain firm focused on building and empowering the next generation of global financial services.