Industry NewsJuly 19, 2018

Santander Picks Blockchain to Change How Securities Are Issued, Traded, And Settled

José M. Linares
José M. Linares

Banco Santander, an early adopter of Ripple’s decentralized ledger technology, announced that it will soon be utilizing blockchain and other new technologies within its capital markets business. The goal is to change how securities are issued, traded and settled.

As part of Santander Corporate & Investment Banking’s department, a new ‘Digital Investment Banking’ team, headed by the bank’s blockchain lab director John Whelan, will aim to bring the best possible bespoke solutions to clients, including exploring the use of tokenized securities in debt capital markets, derivatives and other products.
José M. Linares, Santander’s senior executive vice-president and global head of Santander Corporate & Investment Banking, commented:
“The wave of digitalization that is occurring in the financial industry is accelerating. Our clients expect this to result in better solutions, lower costs and new categories of products and services that enable them to access capital markets more efficiently than ever before. We want to offer our clients what they expect from us”.
John Whelan
John Whelan

John Whelan is based in Madrid, Spain, and joined Banco Santander’s blockchain lab in 2016. Prior to that, he was co-chairman of the technical steering committee at the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, where he was responsible for documenting requirements for an enterprise-grade Ethereum client that serves the needs of industry while remaining broadly compatible with the EVM of public Ethereum. Whelan also founded and led Coinist, a blockchain-based tokenized asset rating service, and was President of the International Ripple Business Association.

Banco Santander’s leading role in the application of blockchain technology within financial services includes the bank’s One Pay FX service, which was the first international payments service to launch across multiple markets using blockchain-based technology.

Banco Santander, the world’s ninth-largest financial services company by revenue, has recently appointed two leadership positions in payments, and user experience and new ventures, aiming to further accelerate its digital transformation across its 10 core markets.

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