South Korea's KB Kookmin Bank is partnering with JPMorgan to develop a blockchain-based corporate payment service for businesses engaged in international import and export, according to a report.

The service will be built on the Blockchain Deposit Account (BDA) network developed by Kinexys, JPMorgan's blockchain-focused division, which was formerly known as Onyx before being rebranded in late 2024. The initiative aims to provide Korean companies with shared blockchain infrastructure through which trade-related payments can be sent and received with near-instant settlement.

The planned service will be offered through KB Kookmin Bank's domestic branches in South Korea and its Singapore branch, extending the bank's blockchain payment capabilities to companies active in cross-border commerce. By using the BDA network as a shared blockchain ledger, the partnership is intended to let importers and exporters settle trade payments more quickly, potentially reducing delays associated with conventional cross-border payment processes, which typically route through chains of correspondent banks and can take days to complete.

Initial service to cover 10 remittance corridors

JPMorgan has indicated that the first version of the service will support U.S. dollar-denominated transactions across 10 remittance corridors. The network will primarily link South Korea with major markets in the United States and the Middle East, while also covering several important Asian and African trade destinations.

The listed markets include Singapore, Saudi Arabia, India, Thailand, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and South Africa. This corridor-based approach is expected to give Korean businesses blockchain-enabled settlement capabilities across regions of significance to international trade — a meaningful factor for South Korea, whose economy is heavily oriented toward exports ranging from semiconductors to automobiles.

The deployment also marks a notable step for JPMorgan's BDA network in South Korea: KB Kookmin Bank is the first Korean financial institution to use the Kinexys-developed network for corporate payments, according to the report.

The move follows JPMorgan's decision in June to add five major Asia-Pacific currencies to the BDA network — the Australian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Japanese yen, Chinese renminbi and Singapore dollar — broadening the network's potential applications for multinational businesses operating across the region.

KB Kookmin expands blockchain and tokenization efforts

The partnership forms part of a broader push by KB Kookmin Bank into blockchain-based financial infrastructure, and it also aligns with South Korea's wider institutional engagement with digital asset infrastructure, which includes the Bank of Korea's ongoing work on a wholesale central bank digital currency pilot.

In June 2026, the Korean lender issued the country's first blockchain-powered digital bond, raising $100 million through a two-year, U.S. dollar-denominated private placement arranged with HSBC using its HSBC Orion platform. That issuance demonstrated the bank's growing involvement in tokenized capital markets, while the latest initiative shifts the focus toward corporate payments and cross-border settlement.

In July, KB Kookmin Bank also joined a national deposit-token payment project operated by South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Internet and Security Agency. The project is testing tokenized commercial bank deposits for domestic payments, with KB Kookmin Bank expected to help merchants accept deposit-token transactions.

Together, these developments indicate that KB Kookmin Bank is moving beyond individual blockchain experiments toward broader applications spanning digital bonds, tokenized deposits and corporate cross-border payments.

For importers and exporters, blockchain-based settlement could offer greater visibility into payment movements and shorten the time needed to complete transactions. A shared ledger could also improve coordination among participating financial institutions while supporting more streamlined payment processing.

The partnership reflects the wider adoption of blockchain infrastructure by traditional financial institutions as banks explore ways to modernize cross-border payments and tokenized financial products. By combining KB Kookmin Bank's Korean corporate banking network with JPMorgan's BDA infrastructure, the initiative could establish a new blockchain-based channel for faster international trade payments and expand the practical use of tokenized bank deposits in corporate finance.