BTMU (The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ) and Hitachi launched the test of their newly-developed electronic check payments processing system based on blockchain in Singapore, reported Nikkei on August 22. Blockchain is the concept that was first developed for bitcoin transactions. Being the core technology of the system, blockchain provides a faster and cheaper way for transactions. Planning to have the system ready by 2018 the earliest, Hitachi and BTMU expect to benefit from system development orders and larger fintech applications, respectively. According to the report, 60% of payments in Singapore are made by check, and the country offers a "regulatory sandbox" for fintech experiments.