AEON Financial Service, a group of the largest retail companies in Japan, and IBM Japan are building a blockchain-based financial platform for the Asian market.

The companies have joined forces to build a new payment network for consumers and enterprises in the Asia region, using advanced technologies like blockchain. The platform is expected to enable AEON Financial Service to provide enhanced financial services such as settlement and transactions for both consumers and enterprises in Japan and throughout Asia, including virtual currency payments between individuals and businesses, loyalty points allocation and redemption, and transaction data management.

"Based on settlements and transactions, AEON Financial Service is working to build a platform that will offer various financial services such as virtual currency payments and loyalty points exchange and redemption not only to customers in Japan but also throughout Asia," said Masaaki Mangetsu, Managing Director, Global Business Strategy, AEON Financial Service. "We foresee great opportunities in using blockchain to build this platform, and will aim to use it to improve our current financial services offerings, as well as offering new services to underserved customers in Asian countries."

According to the official release, the trial will be conducted on Hyperledger Fabric, a blockchain framework and one of the Hyperledger projects hosted by The Linux Foundation. IBM Japan will provide technical support to AEON Financial Service for the technology implementation in the finance sector, along with associated technology development services. The platform will draw upon AEON's technical expertise in networking and blockchain technology.

"As an innovative technology, blockchain has the potential to revolutionize ways businesses work together with their ecosystem partners. The technology establishes accountability and transparency while streamlining business processes," said Yoshiki Minowa, Vice President, Partner - Cognitive Process Transformation, Global Business Services, IBM Japan. "We are delighted to work with AEON Financial Service to build up a new blockchain-based platform for innovations."

The initial pilot will evaluate blockchain's effectiveness across these key areas to assess its ability to scale. AEON Financial Service expects to begin the trial in July as the first stage of the proposed plan to develop the platform.

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