Famous five unsettle Bitcoin with utility settlement coin
BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, ICAP and Santander have joined UBS and Clearmatics to advance their utility settlement coin (USC) concept, and plan tests in a real-market environment.
USC is a digital cash model for payments and settlement. It will run on blockchain and be another rival to Bitcoin. The group plan to build on the “successful” tests by UBS and Clearmatics.
Hyder Jaffrey, head of strategic investment and fintech innovation at UBS Investment Bank, says digital cash is a “core component of a future financial market fabric based on blockchain”.
Robert Sams, founder and CEO of Clearmatics Technologies, adds: “Cash is a leg to almost every trade, so this project is key to unlocking the benefits that the industry can gain from distributed automation technology in clearing, settlement and collateral management,”
The focus of the work will consist of financial structuring, wider market structure implications, and market integration points for a “fully operational” USC.
Clearmatics will deliver early releases of the technology platform to underpin the concept. The group are talking with central banks and regulators to ensure a “regulation compliant, robust and efficient structure” within which the USC can be deployed.
The USC concept will be developed through a series of short iterative phases and platform deployments. At each stage the aim is to increase the number of market participants, “broadening engagement”, connectivity and network effect.
