The National Bank of Egypt, the country’s one of the oldest and largest banks, has joined the blockchain consortium led by R3, Daily News Egypt reported.

R3’s global network counts over 200 banks, financial services firms, technology companies, central banks, regulators, and trade associations. It also works with a number of central banks and regulators around the world. R3 offers access to Corda – an enterprise-grade distributed ledger platform for finance and commerce.

With its membership, NBE will explore the potential of blockchain technology for banking. The bank would get an opportunity to train its IT staff on Corda and engage in existing blockchain proof of concepts in different banking applications.

“By joining this initiative together with world banks and companies, we will be able to closely monitor and engage directly in global blockchain developments,” Hisham Okasha, NBE chairperson, said. “We can better assess the value this technology can bring to the banking industry and the impact it can have on faster and more cost-effective services to our customers for future implementation”

The NBE also plans to present a project idea to the consortium which focuses on blockchain application in one of its banking services in collaboration with other regional and international banks.

“The addition of the National Bank of Egypt to our ever-growing Corda network enhances our engagement with the global financial industry, particularly in the MENA region. Our partners are developing cutting-edge blockchain applications on Corda that will change the way the world does business.” David E Rutter, CEO of R3, said in a statement.