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Ping An joins a group of more than 40 of the world's biggest banks and other financial institutions, such as Barclays and Goldman Sachs, brought together last year by New York-based R3 to work together on using the technology that underpins digital currency bitcoin.

Chinese financial firms -- some of the biggest in the world -- had been conspicuous by their absence in the consortium.

R3 CEO David Rutter, formerly CEO of electronic trading at ICAP, one of the world's largest interdealer brokers, called the addition of Ping An an important milestone.