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trueDigital and Credit Suisse Makes Important Senior Level Management Appointments

February 20, 2019 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Bitcoin, Blockchain, blockchain technology, Credit Suisse, Cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency exchange, Morgan Stanley, risk management, Thomas Kim, trueDigital, trueEX

FinTech Provider, trueDigital Appoints Thomas Kim as its New CEO

Fintech provider trueDigital, the subsidiary of swap execution facility operator TrueEX has announced the appointment of Thomas Kim as its newest Chief Executive Officer which will also join the company’s Board.

Kim has spent a considerable part of his career in the financial services industry, and before joining trueDigital, he was Chief Operating Officer at Bridgewater Associates, an American investment management company, where he spent seven years. Prior to this, he was working with some of the prominent financial institutes including now collapsed Lehman Brothers and UNX.

At trueDigital, Kim will be responsible for developing the company’s business around the digital assets and with a focus on advanced technologies like blockchain technology. In December last year, the company confirmed the launch of blockchain-based payment systems with Signature Bank.

Sunil Hirani, trueDigital’s Founder and Member of the Board of Directors commented on the appointment:

“Thomas brings the expertise and the boldness to carry forward our vision of bringing blockchain-based financial technologies to life. His accomplishments at some of the world’s most technologically-driven and demanding institutions speak to his ability to think creatively and lead effectively. This will be instrumental as we double down on our ambitions to innovate, grow and scale.”

Thomas Kim also commented on this appointment:

“Transforming financial market infrastructure is an ambitious goal, yet the progress to date shows the potential of trueDigital’s technologies to modernize markets and bring digital assets forward. The team, the thinking, and the technology at trueDigital are all attuned for significant growth, and I look forward to leading the way.”

Credit Suisse Taps Morgan Stanley Executive Matteo Mazzeto

Credit Suisse has managed to make a significant appointment as it has secured Morgan Stanley’s equities derivatives executive Matteo Mazzeto.

Matteo Mazzeto was Executive Director at Morgan Stanley and will join Credit Suisse this week in London. Mazzeto spent almost two years with Morgan Stanley running the ALPHAS product sales for EMEA division. It is understood he has resigned from Morgan Stanley in November 2018 to join Credit Suisse.

Mazzeto has joined Morgan Stanley from Barclays after spending four years with the company. He started his career with the leading investment banking company, Goldman Sachs in 2005.

At Credit Suisse, it is believed that Mazzeto has been tasked with building something similar to what he has done in Morgan Stanley. Credit Suisse has made more than 50 new hires in its equities derivatives division including the Mazzeto’s one, and aim for each new hires is to drive the revenues in the division.

Coinbase Acquires Italian Blockchain Analytics Surveillance Company Neutrino

February 20, 2019 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Blockchain, Brokers, Coinbase, Cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency exchange, Ethereum, financial services, Neutrino, risk management

San Franciso based crypto exchange, Coinbase has stroked another major acquisition. And this time it has made a very different acquisition by acquiring Neutrino, an Italian blockchain surveillance company for an undisclosed sum.

This acquisition comes soon after it had acquired US exchange Blockspring, made major improvements to its overall client offerings and added first stablecoin to its portfolio.

The latest acquisition of Neutrino has eyebrows of several industry participants, as the company has links to some suspicious roots in its development. The COO of Neutrino, Giancarlo Russo is a former COO of HackingTeam, and that company was in the business of selling offensive intrusion and surveillance capabilities to governments, law enforcement agencies, and corporations.

As per the release from Coinbase, this acquisition is a strategic one and will help the exchange in pushing a broader class of digital currencies internationally. As a part of the deal, Neutrino will operate as a standalone business with all of its eight employees moving to London. From there it will serve external clients and expand its businesses. As per the blog post by Coinbase, it said:

“By analyzing data on public blockchains, Neutrino will help us prevent theft of funds from peoples’ accounts, investigate ransomware attacks, and identify bad actors. It will also help us bring more cryptocurrencies and features to more people while helping ensure compliance with local laws and regulations.”

“Neutrino’s technology is the best we’ve encountered in this space, and it will play an important role in legitimizing crypto, making it safer and more accessible for people all over the world.”

In another blog post yesterday, the exchange has also enabled its wallet service for Bitcoin Cash. The new wallet update will roll out to all users and will be available to all iOS and Android users over the next couple of weeks.

Coinbase wallet app now supports Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic and over 100,000 different tokens built on ERC20 and ERC71 collectibles.

$462 Billion by 2030″: The Industry Reacts to Blockchain Forecast

February 19, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Feature Articles Tagged: Blockchain, blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, ETF, GMEX, IHS Markit, MINDEX, OTC, Quorum Blockchain, R3, R3 blockhain, Ripple, Seed CX, USAVE, WEF 2019

The finance industry blockchain market may reach $462 billion by 2030, according to business information provider IHS Markit. The figure represents explosive growth when compared to the value of blockchain in the financial sector in 2017, at $1.9 billion.

The expected increase in the number of blockchain projects launched and their subsequent commercial deployment in the coming years should result in the aforementioned forecast. Don Tait, principal analyst at IHS Markit, said financial watchdogs in the US, UK, and Hong Kong, among others, are reacting positively towards the technology within the financial sector, which “bolsters the credibility of blockchain technology, helping it become more mainstream.”

Seed CX, an institutional platform for trading digital assets has focused on bridging emerging products with existing infrastructure and regulation. Brian Liston, Seed CX co-founder and COO, told The Industry Spread how positive their experience with regulators has been: “Ultimately, they are interested in learning about emerging technologies and their corresponding business lines, and how they fit into existing regulatory regimes. For example, distributed ledger technology is orthogonal to the idea of centralized clearing. To fully remove a CCP’s position in a market would be a huge leap – but there are a lot of settlement flows, accounting and transfer mechanics that should be replaced with blockchain technology, and those can fit within existing CCP rules nicely.”

The IHS Markit paper projects the global financial market, which includes fintech and insurance, to continue to be the largest value market using blockchain technology as it can be leveraged for cross-border payments, share trading and syndicated lending with greater speed, auditability, and cost-reduction.

“The global financial market has the opportunity to tap into this infrastructure and unlock huge value through broader asset tokenization. The ETF, for example, is an excellent tool used to reduce the cost of trading portfolios, structured products, commodities, and other financial products. Tokenized baskets traded and settled on a blockchain could be the next stage in that evolution”, said Brian Liston, whose company targets spot, derivatives and OTC settlement of digital assets.

The study goes on to say that even a small percentage of cost savings and efficiency gains can lead to significant business value for companies and industries that introduce blockchain technology. For example, the derivatives market is worth around $544 trillion a year and the market capitalization of all the world’s stock markets is equal to $73 trillion. The team at IHS Markit estimates that applying blockchain to the clearing and settlement of cash securities, investment companies could save up to $12 billion in fees. Firms can also reduce costs by cutting out many of the traditional middlemen.

Is $462 Billion Too Far-Fetched?

In regard to the “$462 billion by 2030” projection, GMEX CEO Hirander Misra is not surprised with the seemingly high figure provided as the world prepares to store its economy on blockchain technology.

Hirander Misra

“Whilst these numbers may seem rather high given that statistics can paint whatever picture one wants to get headlines, there is no doubt that blockchain will have a transformational impact on the financial services industry. A recent survey of executives and experts by the World Economic Forum predicted that 10% of Global GDP would be stored on blockchain technology by 2027. This based on 2018 amounts to around $USD8.5 trillion.

The WEF report mentioned by Misra, dubbed “Deep Shift Technology: Tipping Points and Societal Impact”, was published in September 2015, when the cryptocurrency market was worth $4 billion. It is now valued at $120 billion after peaking near $800 billion in early 2018. The document aggregates expectations of 800 experts such as an explosion in tradable assets; better property records in emerging markets, and the ability to make everything a tradable asset. It could also drive the disintermediation of financial institutions, as new services and value exchanges are created directly on the blockchain.

“The current intermediary model will be challenged and become more efficient despite the incumbents trying to create the same processes which exist with the incumbent model. This will be applicable to banking, payments, exchanges and post-trade market infrastructure to name but a few”, Misra added.

GMEX is a provider of multi-asset exchange trading and post-trade technology through a partnership-driven approach in order to create an ecosystem with exchanges and post-trade market infrastructure operators under a hybrid system. The firm has recently partnered with MINDEX to launch the first blockchain securities exchange in Mauritius. In late 2018, GMEX acquired a 30% stake in USAVE to build a secure digital exchange for physical gold.

Don Tait, principal analyst at IHS Markit

The IHS Markit report was published in the same week that J.P. Morgan Chase announced its very own digital coin for payments and becoming the first U.S. bank to create and successfully test a digital coin representing a fiat currency. JPM Coin was designed to enable instantaneous transfer of payments between institutional accounts and reduce clients’ counterparty and settlement risk, as well as capital requirements. The digital coin will be issued on Quorum Blockchain, the bank’s proprietary technology, but operable on all standard Blockchain networks.

Brian Liston, Co-founder and COO at Seed CX

“Despite 2018’s bear market, we have seen a huge investment of time, capital and resources into developing institutional understanding of, and access to, blockchain technology. Every financial institution is researching, building, buying or trading using the technology, and we are looking forward to seeing some of the larger efforts come to fruition over 2019”, said Brian Liston, COO at Seed CX.

The Industry Moves Towards Blockchain

Some of the world’s largest banks have started their transition to blockchain. Banco Santander, the world’s ninth-largest financial services company by revenue, was the first bank in the United Kingdom to use blockchain for cross-payments. Santander partnered with Ripple to provide international payments in “3 clicks and 40 secs“.

In 2018, HSBC and ING Bank used R3’s blockchain to execute a live trade finance transaction for international food and agriculture conglomerate Cargill Earlier this month, Portugal-based Banco Best processed live end-to-end fund transactions with Credit Suisse Asset Management using blockchain.

As the capital markets industry adopts blockchain, digital asset trading on an institutional level grows in demand. The industry has promptly responded with new products and services. GMEX launched am integrated centralized and distributed solution for exchanges and Seed CX has gone live with its institutional digital asset exchange in January.

The Swiss Stock Exchange announced it will launch its digital exchange (SDX) in the second half of 2019 Currency.com issued over 10,000 tokenized securities that mirror the performance of financial instruments through its trading platform for tokenized securities, which track the underlying market price of global equities, indices, and commodities. NetDania’s crypto feed, ICE’s Bakkt crypto exchange, Tradestation’s future crypto brokerage paltform, eToro‘s digital subsidiary eToroX, and the launch of the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange are a few of the recent industry moves towards the emerging asset class.

Canadian Crypto Exchange, Coinsquare Acquires Decentralized Exchange StellarX

February 18, 2019 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Blockchain, Brokers, Coinsquare, Cole Diamond, cryptocurrency, Cryptocurrency exchange, investment, StellarX, trading platform

Coinsquare, one of Canada’s leading crypto exchanges is expanding its offering and has acquired zero fees decentralised exchange, StellarX.

StellarX is a full-featured trading app of Stellar and is built on its own blockchain. According to the blog post by Stellar, Coinsquare would not be fully integrating StellarX with its own platform, rather it would provide all the necessary resources to stick to their original roadmap. Coinsquare would bring in top-notch developers and engineers to support the vision and objective of StellarX.

In addition, Coinsquare would add several new features to its newly acquired company in coming days. At present, StellarX users can exchange their XLM tokens for just a few fiat tokens and alt-coins. But now, after the acquisition, Coinsquare is likely to add few security tokens and fiat-pegged tokens. The other big advantage of this acquisition is, StellarX will be benefitted from the Coinsquare’s good relationship with the US and European regulators. The statement in its blog reflects the company’s stance.

To fulfill its potential, StellarX needs a home with regulatory experience and with a full-scope plan to build around the app.

As a part of the deal, StellarX will be led by BlockEQ cofounder Megha Bambra and will continue its development in accordance with the product roadmap announced by Stellar in autumn of 2018. StellarX will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Coinsquare and will be based in Bermuda. The company will retain its identity and logo, according to the statement.

Coinsquare CEO Cole Diamond said:

“We are deeply committed to ensuring that the cryptocurrency market thrives, and adoption is key. Stellar is the fastest payment network in the world, and we see enormous potential to create industry-leading services on StellarX to further broader adoption.

The stellar team noted that why the deal went through, it added, they saw success in independently becoming the top three decentralized exchange in near future, and it needs a home with a regulatory experience to achieve its full potential.

Fintech Raises $111.8B in 2018, Up By 120 Percent, Says KPMG

February 16, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Anton Ruddenklau, artificial intelligence, Blockchain, buyout, Fintech, fintech funding, insurtech, KPMG, M&A, RegTech, VC funding

KPMG has found that global fintech funding rose by 120 percent to $111.8B in 2018 from $50.8B in 2017, mainly driven by mega M&A and buyout deals such as Blackstone’s $17B investment in Refinitiv in H2’18 and the $12.86B acquisition of WorldPay by Vantiv in H1’18.

Other notable deals include the $3.5B acquisition of Blackhawk Network by Silver Lake and P2 Capital Partners, the $3.4B buyout of VeriFone by Francisco Partners, and the $2.2B acquisition of iZettle by PayPal. While fintech deal volume declined in the second half of 2018, the year totaled 2,196 deals, up from 2,165 in 2017.

Ian Pollari, Global Co-Lead at KPMG Fintech, commented:

Ian Pollari, Global Co-Lead at KPMG Fintech,

“The growing deal sizes, higher levels of M&A activity and the geographic spread of deals all highlight the increasing maturation of the fintech sector on a global scale. Fintech start-ups in markets as diverse as Germany and Brazil are attracting larger and later stage rounds, while the more established fintech leaders in the US, UK and Asia are making their own investments and acquisitions in order to expand their product and geographic reach.”

Anton Ruddenklau, Global Co-Lead, KPMG Fintech, added:

“Beyond new fintech-fueled business models, the increasing regulatory and legal obligations emanating from PSD2, GDPR and other regulations are impacting both established players and emerging fintechs. As a result, there is increasing interest in technologies – like AI and machine learning – that can be used to help manage compliance requirements more effectively. There’s little doubt that technology investment is going to go up, up, up.”

2018 was a year of multiple record highs across fintech investment, including VC, corporate VC, M&A and PE, according to KPMG.

Increasing geographic diversity of fintech VC funding continues to help drive deal volume, even as larger fintech hubs see more concentrated investment in larger deals.

Mega deals drove a record $111.8B global fintech investment in 2018, led by three $10B+ deals, as well as an additional 14 $1B+ M&A deals. The US accounted for the bulk of Fintech investment in the Americas: $52.5B across 1,061 deals ou t of a total $54.5B across 1,245 deals.

While behind the US, Europe saw a sharp increase in fintech investment, at $34.2B from $12.2B in 2017, thanks to massive M&A and buyout deals, including WorldPay ($12.8B), Nets ($5.5B), iZettle ($2.2B), Fidessa Group ($2.1B), and IRIS Software Group ($1.75B). In total, there were 536 deals in the old continent.

Anton Ruddenklau, Global Co-Lead, KPMG Fintech

The APAC region accounted for $22.7B, up from $12.5B in 2017, with Ant Financial‘s record-setting $14B deal in Q2’18 representing over half of the volume.

Cross-border M&A rose significantly in 2018, with approximately $53.5B invested across borders in 155 deals, up from $18.9B in 153 cross-border deals in 2017. The US led the way, drawing $28B, followed by Europe with $21.6B.

The subsector of Regtech gained new strength in 2018, up to $3.7B from $1.2B in 2017. Blockchain remained strong at $4.5B in 2018, just off the $4.8B in 2017.

Canada and Brazil continue to expand fintech investment

Brazil achieved a record high of $556M across 28 deals, Canada saw a record 119 fintech deals in 2018, bringing in $1.18B of investment. The UK’s $20.7B, up from $5.6B in 2017, accounted for the majority of fintech funding in Europe. Germany and France experienced a drop-off of fintech investment in 2018, with $1B (from $1.7B) raised across 57 deals in Germany and $294M (from $733M) raised on 34 deals in France. Apart from Ant Financial’s $14B, China accounted for $4.2B in funding, followed by India’s $1.7B and Singapore’s $347M. Australia saw $572M across 28 deals.

KMPG expects fintech subsectors, such as regtech and insurtech, should contribute to continued growth in 2019 despite geopolitcal concerns. Artificial Intelligence and automation are expected to remain very hot technologies this year.

Blockchain Commodity Platform, VAKT Appoints Etienne Amic as its New Chief Executive Officer

February 14, 2019 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Amic, Blockchain, brokerage, Capital Markets, CommodiTech, Cryptocurrencies, eToro, FX trading, Salomon Sredini, TradeStation, trading platform, Vakt, Vortexa

VAKT, blockchain commodities trading platform has appointed Etienne Amic as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Amic has been leading commodities trading division of many leading banks and financial institutes. He joins VAKT from CommodiTech Ventures, a commodities technology investment fund based in London, which he co-founded in October 2017. Alongside, he was also working as Chairman of Vortexa, a cargo tracking and analytics company which he co-founded.

Amic has also worked with JPMorgan Chase as its Managing Director in its commodity trading division. He joined JPMorgan Chase in 2007 when his previous company Bear Stearns was acquired by the investment banking firm.

VAKT is a three-month-old startup and has already received investment from commodities giant like Shell, BP, and Equinor. While commenting on his appointment as a CEO of VAKT, Etienne Amic said:

“I was aware of VAKT from the start, but what impressed me was the success the company has had as a creation by a consortium of traders. To have such prestigious companies pulling in the same direction – many of them, competitors – tells you this is something very powerful that the industry really needs.”

eToro Adds Former TradeStation CEO Salomon Sredini as its Senior Advisor

Retail trading firm, eToro has announced the appointment of Salomon Sredini as the Senior Advisor and has also been appointed in the company’s Board.

Sredini’s primary role will be to strengthen the company’s presence in the US markets which has been battling much regulatory uncertainty and stiff compliance rules. eToro is not into providing forex and equities trading service in the US, but rather is focusing on offering cryptocurrency trading services to US citizens.

Sredini has a long career in TradeStation from 1996, and eventually became the President and Chief Executive Officer. He led the firm’s sale to Japan’s Monex Group for $411 million and had left the company role as CEO and President in 2016. Afterward, he has continued to remain in the firm as Senior Advisor.

Crypto MidWeek Buzz : Questions persist on key crypto fundamentals, but investors dive in

February 13, 2019 by William Freedman Leave a Comment Filed Under: Feature Articles Tagged: Bitcoin, bitcoin futures, Blockchain, Chainalysis, crypto, Cryptocurrencies, Ethereum, U.S.Pensioners, Voyager Digital

Ethereum

Ethereum mining declining. According to analytics site Etherscan, ETH is being mined at the lowest rates since its 2015 launch. On February 11, only 13,131 new coins were created. Aside from a three-week swoon in the autumn of 2017, it has never fell to comparable levels. Over the course of the previous 12 months, 20,000 was a typical day. While the price has been steady to positive – currently around $120 – and volumes have been enough to maintain liquidity – around 3 million daily – there’s less incentive to mine because of plans to wean ETH off proof-of-work. After the Constantinople update, the coin is expected to adopt a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin fees drop, volumes rise. Analytics site Diar reports that median fees for trading BTC have dropped to 2015 levels. Meantime, the report notes that daily volumes are crossing the 9 million threshold, which is where they were right before the peak just over a year ago. That said, the dollar-denominated value per transaction is as low as it’s been since Diar started tracking in 2014.

BTC futures, though, are another story. Separately, analytics company Tradeblock discovered that futures contracts for BTC offered through both the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange have plummeted relative to spot markets. “While December saw the spot market post a healthy retracement, trade activity in the futures markets fell by more than half to post its worst performing month since launch,” Bitcoin.com reports, “suggesting a shift away from the cryptocurrency derivatives offered by CME and CBOE in favor of the traditional cryptocurrency markets.”

First U.S. pensions invested in crypto. Institutional investors have been slow – perhaps wisely so – to invest in cryptocurrency, and pensions have understandably lagged other institutions. So it was something of an earthshaking event when two retirement plans from Virginia pooled $40 million to invest in Morgan Creek Digital, as Bloomberg reports. Morgan Creek Digital is the venture capital firm’s crypto-focused portfolio.

Voyager Digital goes public. Canadian token broker Voyager Digital listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange February 8, with the ticker symbol VYGR.V. “The idea of a young company going public may at first glance seem out of the norm. For us, the choice made perfect sense,” blogged CEO Stephen Ehrlich. “It offered Voyager the chance to bring transparency to our business, maturity to the crypto market and to provide the world with an opportunity to invest in a public crypto trading company through the traditional market.”

Chainalysis secures second round. Cryptocurrency compliance firm Chainalysis, fresh off last year’s $16 million initial funding, announced a Series B led by Accel with existing investors subscribing. The newly raised $30 million will go toward opening a London office, expanding into Asia-Pacific markets and other corporate purposes. Chainalysis markets its tools mainly to law enforcement and regulatory agencies.

LOOKING FORWARD: Patrick Byrne, the Overstock CEO who became an early and influential cryptocurrency enthusiast, told MarketWatch that blockchain technology could enable “government-as-a-service” that would be more efficient as well as resistant to bribes and corruption. “We could step into Venezuela with six laptops and create not only a functioning society but arguably one with the most advanced government systems in the world,” he said. … A stablecoin linked to the Japanese yen is in the planning stages and will be launched this year, according to Cointelegraph, which listened in on a GMO Internet earnings presentation. “Regarding the plan to launch GYEN as announced last year, we plan to issue it in overseas this year,” reporter Adrian Zmudzinski quotes a top executive as saying.

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EverForex Financial Appoints appointed Christian Dove as its newest Chief Executive Officer

February 8, 2019 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Blockchain, brokerage, Brokers, Capital Markets, Cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency exchange, EverForex Financial, financial services, Globex, risk management, trading platform, tZERO

Online foreign exchange network, EverForex Financial has appointed Christian Dove as its newest Chief Executive Officer. Christian Dove has assumed his new role in the new year.

Mr. Dove joined EverForex Financial after spending almost a decade with Synergy Financial Markets which he founded. Synergy is only the licensed advisory funds’ management business in Australia. Mr. Dove has worked with every aspect of Synergy- from leading the dealing room and managing risk to advising clients on their trading activity.

Synergy was later acquired by Australian-regulated broker, ACY Capital in September last year. Dove added: “Since selling Synergy last year I have been looking for new opportunities. Both I and EverForex are very excited about our potential together in the future.”

After taking on the role as CEO at EverForex, he has announced that the company will be launching its FX margin trading business in March of this year. EverForex is involved in the deliverable foreign exchange (FX) business historically and is now maximising their licence capability and giving their clients a diversified FX capability by developing a margin FX business.

Blockchain Firm “Globex” Appoints Mitch Edwards as its Chief Strategy Officer

Globex, a blockchain software company on Thursday has appointed blockchain veteran, Mitch Edwards as its Chief Strategy Officer.

Alongside his new role with Globex, Edwards is also Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Chia Networks, a company that is creating green cryptocurrency and CFO of Core Scientific, a company that builds blockchain infrastructure.

At Globex, Edwards will be leading the company’s efforts at global expansion and will also be working on the compliance procedures. Edwards working as a CEO for two years at Overstock has helped in the development of blockchain securities and also helped build tZERO – the company’s digital asset exchange.

Brian Collins, Globex CEO commented on the addition:

“Mitch has extensive experience in both capital markets and building blockchain businesses. His experience covers investments in blockchain technologies and exchanges from early stage through project development and operations which will be a hugely important asset to our company as we continue to pursue our strategic priorities.”

Banco Best Led End-to-End Fund Transaction Using Blockchain

February 8, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Banco Best, Blockchain, CreditSuisse, Distributed ledger technology, FundsDLT, FundSquare, KYC

Banco Best, a Portugal-based financial institution operating in banking, asset management, and trading, has successfully processed live end-to-end fund transactions using blockchain-powered technology together with Credit Suisse Asset Management.

The project used FundsDLT, a decentralized platform for fund transaction processing, and Banco Best developed the API integration as well as a dedicated app to understand the full impact of the client experience. The innovation reduces the time between the request and the settlement of an order in a substantial way.

The successful cross-border distribution of an investment fund over blockchain proved to be more efficient, scalable, and timely in processing. The new model marks another milestone for transforming fund distribution. Every part of the fund trade process, from delivery of the order to the processing of the trade, was registered on the blockchain.

Carlos Almeida, Director of Investments at Banco Best

Carlos Almeida, Director of Investments at Banco Best, commented: “This proof of concept is a great achievement and reinforces Banco Best’s commitment to be ahead of the curve. We want to be involved in blockchain technology to work together with all stakeholders in order to adapt and seize new opportunities in our business model, with the ambition to improve the customer experience and to promote financial inclusion.“

Credit Suisse Fund Services (Luxembourg) SA is one of the first asset servicing providers to process a full end-to-end fund transaction using blockchain, integrated within its core platforms. Claude Metz, Head of Shareholder Services at Credit Suisse Fund Services (Luxembourg) SA, said:

“Integration with FundsDLT was very efficient and straight-forward. Blockchain technology in connection with potential mutualized KYC (know your client) servicing will be a game changer for the investment funds business. This initiative benefits investors, distributors and transfer agents greatly from an operational efficiency standpoint, and we are only at the beginning of this most promising journey.”

Pascal Nägeli, Chief Digital Officer at Credit Suisse Asset Management, said: “We continuously seek to improve performance for our clients. As part of our digitalization journey, we consider blockchain technology as a great lever to increase efficiency. With the successful completion of real, live transactions, we were able to prove that considerable benefits can be achieved with distributed ledger technology for both clients and asset managers.”

Olivier Portenseigne, Chief Commercial Officer of Fundsquare, added: “Our goal is to collaborate with major players from the fund industry so as to capitalize on the benefits that blockchain technology brings. We are delighted to see a Portuguese innovative bank linking with Credit Suisse Asset Management and test our platform to explore the value that this new infrastructure can deliver. FundsDLT is an international initiative that streamlines a number of activities within the fund distribution value chain, and as a consequence, will reduce costs for the benefits of investors across fund and investor domiciles.”

Swiss Stock Exchange Operator SIX Group Announces Launch of New-Blockchain Powered Digital Exchange

February 7, 2019 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Blockchain, brokerage, Brokers, Cryptocurrencies, FX trading, investment, Jos Dijsselhof, Romeo Lacher, Six Group, Swiss Stock Exchange, trading platform

SIX Group, the operator of Swiss Stock Exchange has announced that it will launch a new blockchain-powered exchange, dubbed SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), in the second half of 2019.

The new digital platform will run in parallel to existing SIX platforms. The existing platform witnesses roughly volume of 5.19 billion Swiss Francs (CHF) or $5.18 billion in daily terms and has a market capitalization of over 1.67 trillion CHF or $1.6 trillion. The new platform will use blockchain distributed ledger to bridge traditional finance and the technology of cryptocurrencies.

According to its CEO Jos Dijsselhof, the exchange has selected the technology for the time efficiency and improved security it offers across all stages of stock trading and settlement.

“The fact is, it takes two days for the buyer of stock to become the owner. The trade itself only takes a fraction of a second, but after that payments have to be settled and titles transferred. If we put it all on our digital exchange, then the whole process takes only a few seconds. This makes the market more efficient, but at the same time also takes risks out of the system.”

As per the SIX Group’s Chairman Romeo Lacher, the company is ready to add a number of digital assets to its platform and believes that the existing system would be replaced completely by the new digital system in the next ten years. The exchange has not clarified the stocks or products to be listed first, but it is likely that it will introduce only selected stocks initially.

Following the full launch of digital exchange, other products such as bonds and exchange-traded funds will also be listed and as well as tokenizing other assets will also be done. Lacher said:

“We want to start with our own Security Token Offering. The supervisory board will probably decide (on the project)in late summer,”

With this, SIX Group has become the first leading marketplace to use the technology to offer such a regulated environment for digital assets. Other exchanges such as the German stock exchange operator Deutsche Boerse has also set up a unit to explore the technology for various use cases.