When the bragging goes quiet on Wall Street, you know the serious talk has begun. This has been the case with blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT). The hype evaporated pretty fast when the securities industry began to seriously test the glibly christened savior of disruptive technologies. Banks, exchanges, hedge funds, vendors, and everything else in between… Read More >>
DTCC Moves Ahead with DLT-Based Settlement Platform
The DTCC is moving ahead with its alternative securities settlement platform —the Project Ion initiative — based upon distributed ledger technology (DLT) after “a successful prototype pilot” with market participants, officials say. The prototype pilot showed that DLT could support the shorter settlement cycles of trading day plus one (T+1) and settlement on the trading… Read More >>
Can New Technologies Fix Old Ops Woes?
Cutting-edge, disruptive technologies — especially those that exploit advances in artificial intelligence — have captured the attention of securities trading firms. But turning the hype into useful ways to counter ongoing Ops problems remains a challenge for many firms. So, to help firms come to grips with machine learning (ML), robotics, natural language processing (NLP), regulatory… Read More >>
Canadian Regulator Takes Aim at Crypto-Trading Platform
Canadian financial services regulator, the Toronto-based Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has officially charged a Seychelles-based firm with running an online digital asset trading platform that is noncompliant with the securities-trading laws of the Canadian province. The allegations could result in millions of dollars in penalties and disgorgements. The OSC is formally charging Aux Cayes Fintech… Read More >>
UBS Joins Broadridge’s Platform for Repo Transactions
Broadridge Financial Solutions has gotten the endorsement of Swiss banking giant UBS for a distributed ledger repo (DLR) platform that promises participants greater liquidity, less risk, and reduced operation costs, officials say. Vendor officials say that the DLR system provides a single platform for market participants to agree, execute and settle repo transactions. “Under a… Read More >>
Crypto Assets Mean Digital Ops for Hedge Funds
Over the next five years, hedge funds are on track for a greater embrace of crypto assets for their investments, and digital overhauls to manage cutting-edge securities operations, according to a survey released in late May by fund administration services provider Intertrust Group, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The company surveyed 100 senior-level professionals at… Read More >>
DLT Meets Collateral Management via Partnership
CloudMargin & Ivno Bring DLT to Collateral & Margining CloudMargin, maker of a cloud-native collateral and margining solution, is working with Ivno, a financial markets tokenization vendor, to develop a collateral management solution that uses distributed ledger technology (DLT) and cloud computing, officials say. Their new strategic partnership will leverage Ivno’s DLT strengths and CloudMargin’s… Read More >>
Broadridge’s DLR Handles $31B in Repos Daily
Post-trade systems and services provider Broadridge Financial Solutions officially launched on June 7 its distributed ledger repo (DLR) platform for bilateral repo trades that executed $31 billion in average daily volume during its first week. The blockchain-based transaction platform helps market participants “agree, execute and settle repo transactions,” officials say. Broadridge is hoping that the… Read More >>
Top Banks Test Drive Intraday FX Swaps Platform
Tests Involve DLT & Non-DLT Technology NatWest Group, Deutsche Bank, Bank of Ireland, and Banca Mediolanum have been working with treasury teams at other large banks to test a platform for intraday foreign exchange (FX) swaps trading that involves distributed ledger technology (DLT) and non-DLT systems, officials at Finteum say. “The banks’ initiative to create… Read More >>
Wall Street Resists Full Embrace of DLT: Report
Blockchains based upon distributed ledger technology (DLT) have the capacity to undo the “complexity, opacity and fragmentation of capital markets,” but they lack a clear path to wider acceptance, are competing against other disruptive technologies for funding, and represent a threat to traditional industry institutions, according to a new report from World Economic Forum (WEF)…. Read More >>