A Japanese financial services group is set to launch the first bank-backed digital currency exchange.SBI announced today that it is establishing a new company, dubbed SBI Virtual Currencies Co., Ltd., that will provide exchange services for as-yet-undisclosed digital currencies.The venture is being funded with 300m yen (roughly $2.8m USD at press time) in new capital, according to the firm.While the launch date was not disclosed, SBI said it would officially form the company next month and will provide future updates as to the specific kinds of services the exchange will offer.The new company will be headquartered in Tokyo.According to translated statements, the company said that it was moving to capture a “new value asset management opportunity”.SBI also cited positive regulatory conditions in Japan as a driving factor behind the decision to launch an exchange.The plan represents what is perhaps SBI’s most aggressive move in the digital currency and blockchain space to date.SBI Holdings took part in Ripple’s $55m Series B funding round earlier this, and also invested in bitFlyer, a Japanese bitcoin exchange, through its venture capital subsidiary.

SBI previously announced that it was working with Ripple to create a new joint venture.Beyond investing, SBI has worked with other financial firms in Japan to test blockchain applications in areas like currency settlement and digital banking.Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has ownership stakes in bitFlyer and Ripple.bitcoin reno The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies.ethereum nzdREAD MORE ON » State Bank Of IndiaSBIriskMicrosoftICICI bankIBMFederal bankAxis Bank, ICICI Bank and Federal Bank, which are experimenting with this technology in some way or the other, have teamed up with SBI as well.dogecoin rateMUMBAI: State Bank of India has taken the lead in bringing lenders and tech companies together for using blockchain technology to share information among banks which will eventually help prevent frauds and tackle bad loans which are almost one-fifth of banks' loan book.bitcoin wallet app backup

The SBI's initiative, christened Bankchain, is in partnership with IBM, Microsoft, Skylark, KPMG and 10 commercial banks.The country's largest lender has also tied up with a startup firm Prime chain Technologies for this exercise.Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and Federal Bank, which are experimenting with this technology in some way or the other, have teamed up with SBI as well.litecoin linuxBlockchain, the technology behind cyber currency Bitcoin, follows the concept of a centralised registry that can be accessed by all members, and every event is registered as an unalterable 'block'.ethereum value in euro“Being the largest bank, SBI has taken the lead in initiating blockchain, and we are in talks with banks and other companies for this,“ said M Mahapatra, deputy managing director, SBI, confirming the development to ET.“To start with, we have formed a forum which has proposed to start with trade finance and loan documents can be put on the block,“ he said.

Bankers said that digitially signed documents that are part of consortium lending and which have to be shared can be put up as a block so that they will be known to all members.(At present, they are either physically exchanged or mailed to each other).All the subsequent events related to the loan can be put on the block so that members can take informed decisions.Another business where blockchain can be used as a tool is in trade finance where there's a risk of fraud with the merchant going to multiple banks with the same invoice to get the bill discounted.If documents are put on the blockchain, everyone will know which invoices have been discounted by Bank X and this could prevent multiple discounting frauds.“Today, there are several banks pursuing individual blockchain strategies.These individual initiatives will be meaningful when they are used by all the banks.For instance, a payment system such as NEFT cannot be successful if it is adopted by only one bank,“ said a senior bank official.

Japan-based bitcoin exchange bitFlyer has raised ¥3bn, or just shy of $27m, in a Series C funding round led by Venture Labo Investment and SBI Investment, the venture capital division of financial services conglomerate SBI Group.The announcement is the latest for bitFlyer, which raised ¥510m ($4m) as part of a funding round last August that included Dentsu Digital Holdings, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital Co and Venture Labo.In interview, bitFlyer CEO Yuzo Kano indicated that the funding could be used to double the size of the exchange’s 23-person team, currently based in Tokyo and Luxembourg.Kano said that the funding was due to bitFlyer’s focus on both bitcoin trading and blockchain applications more broadly, telling CoinDesk: "Investors value our technical advantage.We are almost the only company that has been focusing on both virtual currency and blockchain from day one."Kano said that bitFlyer’s banking investors are primarily interested in its blockchain technology work, as well as what he described as “various FinTech related resources” that the company has in addition to its digital currency exchange.

According to data from Coinmarketcap, the exchange saw volume for its BTC/JPY trading pair totaling $8.8m in the last 24 hours, a figure that places it ahead of competitors BTCBOX and Zaif.The new capital brings BitFlyer’s total funding to more than $34m over five investment rounds.Coins of Japan image via Shutterstock Disclaimer: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in bitFlyer.Japanese venture capital firm SBI Investment is leading a Series B funding round in bitcoin exchange Kraken.While the terms of the deal were not disclosed, Kraken said that a "multi-million dollar" investment had been agreed upon with SBI.Kraken did not say when it expected the Series B round to be completed."It’s a fantastic first step toward completing Series B, which will ultimately enable us to scale our business worldwide," said Kraken CEO Jesse Powell.SBI Investment is the venture capital arm of SBI Holdings, an Internet-based financial group that reported an operating revenue of roughly $2bn in 2015.