Deutsche Bank joins JPMorgan's blockchain-based Interbank Information Network

Deutsche Bank has joined banking rival JPMorgan's Interbank Information Network, a blockchain-based network comprised of over 60 banks, according to a Financial Times report. 

The IIN allows member banks to exchange information related to international payments on a blockchain. Up until this point, most of the members of the network have been smaller banks and clients of JPMorgan. 

"Having Deutsche join — and hopefully Deutsche will be the first of several other large banks — is going to help us drive towards ubiquity and ubiquity is a prerequisite for the success of the network," said JPMorgan head of payments Takis Georgakopoulos.

Joining the INN could prove to be a buoy for Deutsche Bank, which laid off thousands of employees earlier this year to address financial headwinds. As per the FT, it could allow Deutsche Bank to "offer better services to their clients, and would lower the cost of processing difficult payments."

As for what's to come next, Georgakopoulos said the firm was on target to sign up 400 banks by the end of the year, which he expects to include other "large banks," according to the FT.