Despite controversy and predictions of its death, principled investments based upon environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concerns are alive and kicking as evidenced by growing demands for ESG data. Also very much alive are artificial intelligence (A.I.) technologies, which could prove to be cost-effective for automated compliance and regulatory reporting, and for middle- and back-office… Read More >>
Time to Integrate Digital Asset Securities?
(Jacek Bugaj, the new head of product at Prometheum Inc., is on a mission to integrate the emerging benefits of digital asset securities within traditional market infrastructure. Bugaj will oversee the development, launch, and maintenance of Prometheum’s suite of products, which are delivered via SEC-registered and FINRA-member entities Prometheum ATS and Prometheum Capital. His mission… Read More >>
Digital Assets & DLT Grow in Popularity & Risk
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) and digital assets are becoming the preferred way to meet cash and liquidity requirements for digital securities settlements, according to a report from Citi Securities Services. However, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is cautioning that banks using permissionless a.k.a public blockchains face “risks related to operations and security, governance, legal,… Read More >>
State Street & Taurus to Build Digital Custody Services
State Street Corp. is bolstering its digital asset solutions business via an agreement with Taurus SA, a digital asset infrastructure provider, in response to institutional interest in digital assets that’s “at an all-time high,” according to the Boston-based custodian bank. The collaboration will add tokenization and digital custody services support to the custodian’s currently available… Read More >>
Cboe Clear Europe & ABN Amro Test CBDC as Collateral
Cboe Clear Europe, a pan-European clearinghouse, and ABN Amro Clearing Bank N.V., report that they have been testing the use of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) as collateral, essentially exploring the potential of distributed ledger technology (DLT). In particular, they have been “testing the viability of the solution for margin calls outside the opening… Read More >>
iCapital Embraces DLT for New Fund
iCapital, which offers an alternative investment platform, has launched its first fund that exploits distributed ledger technology (DLT) to save clients “thousands of hours of manual data reconciliation and version sharing,” and promises to cut costs, boost productivity, and reduce the risks of manual data entry. Using DLT to ease these pain points is intended… Read More >>
Citi & Wellington Explore the Disruptive Power of Tokens
Late last year, Citi, Wellington Management, WisdomTree, and DTCC officials conducted a proof of concept (POC) experiment to explore how tokenization could be applied to private funds and to test the capital markets capabilities of blockchain technology. “Tokenization is the process of issuing a digital representation of an asset on a blockchain,” according to a… Read More >>
DLT Hits Its Stride in Ops
Distributed ledger technology (DLT), a.k.a. blockchains, integrated with securities operations appears to be hitting its stride as global investment banks have revealed in a new survey that they want “effective integration” of DLT as a top operations and IT priority over the next three years. The new finding is part of the 2023 annual Future… Read More >>
UBS Embraces a DLT-Based Sponsored Repo Platform
Swiss investment banking giant UBS reports that it is live on a sponsored repo solution based upon distributed ledger technology (DLT), a.k.a. blockchain technology, that was developed by provider Broadridge Financial Solutions. UBS is no stranger to Broadridge’s application of DLT to repo trades as the bank completed “its first cross-border intraday repo transaction on… Read More >>
Old Ops IT Systems Can’t Support T+1: Q&A
(Editor’s note: Earlier this year, Sam Farrell was appointed as head of North America for Torstone Technology, maker of a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for post-trade securities and derivatives processing. Based in Toronto, he oversees U.S. and Canadian operations. A key focus for Farrell will be the North American push for trading day plus one (T+1)… Read More >>
