Chilean Banking Regulator Enlists in R3 Blockchain Consortium

A Chilean banking regulator has joined the R3 distributed ledger consortium.

The Superintendency of Banks and Financial Institutions (SBIF), one of two organizations that oversee the South American country's banking sector, confirmed its participation in the project this week, indicating its desire to learn how companies and government agencies can use the technology in their processes.

The regulator's superintendent, Eric Parrado Herrera, said in a statement:

"Our times no longer allow for rigid, short-sighted and short-term regulations. The 'revolution in evolution' represented by blockchain technology will undoubtedly mark a turning point for financial systems and their users."

Notably, the SBIF isn't the only oversight authority to have joined the consortium to date. In April, Quebec's financial regulator, Autorite des marches financiers (AMF), also announced it had become a member as part of a fact-finding effort.

At the time, an official at the agency echoed Parrado's comments, saying that regulators need to broaden their knowledge base as new technologies like blockchain drive potential change.

"We need to build internal knowledge to have a critical eye and really understand these different use cases," Lise-Estelle Brault, senior director derivatives oversight at the AMF, previously told CoinDesk.

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