Ten banks from across Europe have formed a consortium to share control over their blockchain infrastructure. The group, which includes major institutions such as ABN AMRO, Natixis CIB, and DZ BANK, established Regulated Layer One (RL1) as a jointly owned blockchain cooperative. The new entity is officially registered in Luxembourg as a European Cooperative Society.
They are not merely announcing plans on paper. The RL1 platform has already processed more than 50 transactions with a total value exceeding €700 million, or around $808 million. All of these high-value settlements have been running in production over the past three years, long before the cooperative was officially unveiled to the public.
Shared Control Through a Cooperative
The choice of a cooperative legal structure sets this initiative apart from other banking projects. Each founding member holds equal voting rights in steering the network’s governance. Joining the three previously mentioned banks, the consortium also includes Cecabank, Chartered Investment, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, DekaBank, LBBW, SC Ventures, and Seturion.
RL1 operates a private, permissioned network. The platform’s underlying infrastructure was not built from scratch, but rather developed by German fintech firm SWIAT, short for Secure Worldwide Interbank Asset Transfer. To ensure the network is genuinely shared, SWIAT has now transferred ownership of the infrastructure directly to the cooperative.
Target Operations and New Members
The blockchain cooperative focuses its network on handling a variety of institutional financial assets. The system is specifically designed to process digital cash transfers, tokenized bond issuances, collateral transactions, and blockchain-based inter-institutional settlement schemes.
To lead the new entity, the cooperative appointed Henning Vollbehr, who previously served as managing director at SWIAT. The establishment of RL1 continues to receive full backing from other financial institutions, including KfW and L-Bank. They appear to have no plans to stop at ten members, with RL1 representatives currently holding talks with NatWest to bring the British bank on board.
For the traditional financial industry, this cross-border collaboration among ten institutions highlights a clear trend: major banks no longer view public blockchain networks as the only route for moving client funds. Rather than relying on open systems, they prefer to pool resources to pave a private toll road where they hold the keys to the gate. Via Cointelegraph.
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
