R3 blockchain consortium is continuing to bring more members to its network of global partners. Brazil’s leading banking and financial services company is the latest to join the collaborative blockchain effort.

In a latest announcement, R3 has announced that Banco Bradesco has joined the blockchain consortium to design and apply distributed and shared ledger-inspired technologies to global financial markets. Bradesco will be collaborating with over 50 of the world’s largest financial institutions to develop commercial applications for the financial services industry that leverage the appropriate elements of distributed and shared ledger technology.

“Innovation plays a crucial role at Bradesco and we are committed to better serve our customers and add value to our shareholders”, Maurício Machado de Minas, Executive Vice President at Bradesco, said. “Distributed ledger technologies can help us to achieve these objectives and we are excited about joining R3, so that we can work together and discover the full potential of this new technology.”

Bradesco joins the global network of R3 partners united in its lab environment, the R3 Lab and Research Centre, which has quickly become a center of gravity for collaborative research and testing of distributed and shared-ledger inspired technologies.

“The addition of Bradesco is a further milestone in the global expansion of our consortium. Latin America is an important region for us as we seek to develop distributed and shared ledger-inspired technology that meets the requirements of a diverse network of members operating in financial markets across the globe”, David Rutter, CEO of R3, said in a statement.

Bradesco joins the consortium following the addition of Toyota Financial Services, Asian Life Insurance firm AIA, Ping An Financial Services Group, Hana Financial Group,  SBI Holdings this year. In April, Itaú, a Brazil-based private sector bank, also joined the consortium.