The world’s largest financial institution, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), has revealed it will invest resources into blockchain technology development.

ICBC Chairman Yi Huiman says the bank will also focus research and development efforts on innovations in cloud computing, Big Data, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).

It will more specifically work on developing use cases for “smart banking” aimed at improving services within the financial ecosystem and secure financial data shared with third parties.

The ICBC was founded in 1984 and today has over 5,000 corporate and 530 million individual customers. It has $165 billion in sales a year and $4.2 trillion in assets.

ICBC is already exploring blockchain uses

Recently, news reports suggested the ICBC was exploring the use of blockchain to verify digital certificates rather than the traditional trusted central authority.

Last year, it worked on building so-called “intelligent banking” and “accelerated deployment in the field of financial technologies”, according to Chinese outlet BiaNews.

Top insurance firm People’s Insurance Company of China (PICC) is also embracing blockchain. It has announced a partnership with blockchain platform VeChain and with global quality assurance and risk management firm DNV GL to make its business more time and cost efficient.

Fraud prevention and improvements

PICC intends to improve fraud prevention, know your customer (KYC) compliance and the claims experience of its customers. The company, which says blockchain technology will transform the insurance industry, plans to create a more profitable business model that includes instant compensation for companies.

Amid its major cryptocurrency ban, China continues to embrace blockchain further. In fact, Chinese companies lead the race for blockchain patents with over 56% of the world’s total of 406.