Capital Markets Blockchains Are Finally Getting Go-Live Dates

If minimum viable products have so far proved elusive for companies building blockchain solutions for capital markets, Consensus 2018 marked a notable change in the narrative.

DA, a blockchain startup founded by former JP Morgan executive Blythe Masters, has itself been making headway with its overhaul of the Australian Securities Exchange's Clearing House Electronic Sub-register System.

DA isn't the only company that's actually finally getting somewhere with DLT for financial market rails.

The re-platforming of the DTCC's trade information warehouse is one of the highest profile financial infrastructure blockchain projects bitten off by anyone.

He went on to explain that changing to a blockchain isn't a "Magical flip of a switch." It involves a migration of all the data that is currently in the legacy system into the blockchain before anything can go live.

The enormity of such a project may not be obvious to those unfamiliar with the creaky plumbing of the capital markets.

In Europe, a blockchain project involving the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and a growing contingent of buy-side firms is now scheduled to go live in January 2019.

Professional services firm KPMG picked the clearing and settlement of exchange-traded funds on the Luxembourg exchange as a use case for blockchain - which, it turns out, is a very big deal.

Combining this front-end revamp with blockchains in the back office will mean a roughly 60% reduction in costs for the exchange, said Maguire.

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