Durable medium

What is a durable medium?

The durable medium in the Krajowa Izba Rozliczeniowa (KIR) is a system responding to the demand of, among others, banking sector, which enables storage of documents in accordance with the requirements for a durable medium. The durable medium guarantees invariability and non-repudiation of documents as well as easy access to the information in the future for the time suitable for the purposes for which such information is used.

The service is developed by KIR in cooperation with IBM and Accenture, using blockchain technology based on Hyperledger Fabric. This is the first production launch of the blockchain technology in the Polish banking sector. The application meets all regulatory requirements and responds to the expectations of the banking sector regarding publishing documents addressed to a wide group of recipients (public documents), such as price lists or regulations. It can also be used to provide individual documents to customers.

Why is it worth using a durable medium?

• Regulatory compliance – the service meets the regulatory requirements concerning delivery of electronic documents to the recipients of publications. It also ensures compliance with the GDPR.
• Security – through the use of the blockchain technology, no organization that maintains a distributed register is able to make changes (transactions) independently without verification of such a transaction in the consensus process performed by the indicated organizations maintaining the network. This solution significantly increases the system security, since no single organization constitutes a processing and administration center for the data registered in the blockchain network.
• Cost optimization – the durable medium service reduces high costs related to informing the customers on updating documents in a traditional (paper) form.
• Comfort – it transfers communication between the bank and customer to remote channels. It allows for quick and comfortable sharing of information.
• Standardization – the solution enables easy integration with the existing banking system.