Ten Banks, One Chain, Zero Bosses: Europe's RL1 Cooperative Goes Live 🏦🔗

Ten European financial institutions have jointly launched Regulated Layer One (RL1), a permissioned blockchain cooperative built for regulated financial markets and tokenized assets. The network was established as a European Cooperative Society in Luxembourg and announced Tuesday that it had begun operations.

Founding members include ABN AMRO, Cecabank, Chartered Investment, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, DekaBank, DZ BANK, LBBW, Natixis CIB, SC Ventures and Seturion. RL1 said each member will hold equal decision-making rights over the network's governance and development.

The platform is based on infrastructure originally developed by German fintech Secure Worldwide Interbank Asset Transfer (SWIAT), which has transferred ownership of the network to the cooperative. According to SWIAT, the underlying technology processed more than 50 transactions worth over 700 million euros (about $808 million) during three years of production use.

RL1 is designed to support institutional use cases including digital money, tokenized bonds, collateral and blockchain-based settlement. The cooperative said a shared network could reduce fragmentation caused by financial institutions running separate distributed ledger systems.

Former SWIAT Managing Director Henning Vollbehr will lead RL1. KfW and L-Bank will continue supporting the initiative, and RL1 said it is in discussions with additional institutions, including NatWest, about joining the network.