Seven major financial institutions in blockchain project for European SMEs
Major financial services industry players join forces for a new blockchain project in Europe
The participants are BNP Paribas Securities Services, Caisse des Dépôts, Euroclear, Euronext, S2iEM, Société Générale and Paris Europlace. They have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to study and develop a post-trade blockchain infrastructure for SMEs in Europe.
The agreement is open to other interested parties.
The aim is “to improve SME’s access to capital markets while facilitating secure and transparent post-trade operations”, the participants say.
This is made possible by a new regulatory environment that is being developed in in France, which allows the issue and circulation of securities using blockchain technology.
This emerging technology has the potential to significantly enhance and streamline post-trade operations – the consortium hopes – as trades can be executed fast with clearing settlement in real time at T+0.
“The partnership’s main objective is to combine its members’ financing capacity and expertise to promote innovation through a new, independent company whose mission will be to harness blockchain technology in the design, development and deployment of innovative solutions for post-trade,” state the project participants.
SME companies are “key actors for growth in Europe”, they say.
In a separate development, Euroclear is pondering the creation of a new blockchain-based settlement service for the London gold market.
