Yesterday CULedger announced plans to base its new CU Pay solution for electronic funds transfer on R3’s Corda blockchain technology.
CULedger originally started as a blockchain consortium of U.S. credit unions. It morphed into a credit union service organization (CUSO) which raised $10 million in Series A funding earlier this year.
CU Pay doesn’t aim to replace existing EFT payment networks but instead expand the options. Corda’s Settler can be used for both domestic and cross border payments. It’s integrated with conventional payment rails such as SWIFT as well as Ripple’s XRP and potentially future bank coins such as JPM Coin or others.
In addition to expanding the choice of payment options, CULedger says the benefits of CU Pay are to “reduce risks associated with cybersecurity and fraud, improve the member experience, streamline internal processes and reduce administrative and operational costs.”
CU Ledger is using a variety of blockchain protocols. It previously stated it planned to use Hedera Hashgraph for cross border payments. For identity, it’s using the Sovrin Network as well as Hyperledger Fabric for KYC as an immutable log so regulators can audit that the credit union is compliant. Two months ago it announced a deal with IBM for the KYC Fabric log.
Julie Esser, CULedger’s Chief Engagement Officer, previously explained to Ledger Insights the CULedger vision of a network of networks. “We want the credit unions to have options so they can ultimately decide whether that platform works for their credit union and its membership. We’re not pushing one particular product. We’re making a menu of products open for them.”
