The Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) has announced that it will exchange information with other regulators of the Brazilian Financial System (SFN) using a blockchain platform.

In an official release dated June 19, the central bank unveiled the Information Integration Platform for Regulators (Pier), developed by the BCB’s IT Department (Deinf). The platform will enable data exchange between the BCB and other regulators, such as the Superintendence of Private Insurance (Susep), the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil (CVM), and the National Pension Funds Authority (Previc).

Initially, the new tool will be used to share data related to the financial institutions' authorization procedures.

The central bank said that it chose blockchain technology as it “provides a horizontal network of information-sharing between the regulators connected to Pier”.

Aristides Cavalcante, deputy head of Deinf, explained that as the blockchain platform records every data request using cryptographic signatures, it guarantees the authenticity of data by ensuring that the data is not tampered and certifying its authorship. Furthermore, the technology offers another advantage – the data once recorded on a blockchain cannot be deleted.

“This technology also encourages providing information on demand, since each entity has total control over what is retrieved and how it is retrieved: on Pier, each institution will determine which information, and its format, will be available within the network,” the BCB said.

Pier will be operational at the end of 2018. Initially, the BCB expects that institutions will allow access to information relative to administrative sanctioning processes, but said that any participant would be able to grant access to any information considered to be of mutual interest at any moment.

"Together the automation of data searching and the guarantee of both authenticity and origin of the information will yield efficiency. With Pier, any participant will be able to retrieve data almost immediately, and the platform will decrease error incidence by eliminating manual processes of data retrieval and sharing. Agility gains and fewer mistakes are expected to reduce costs", Cavalcante said.