SIX of the world’s biggest banks have joined a
project to create a new form of digital cash that they
hope to launch next year for clearing and settling
financial transactions over blockchain, the technology
underpinning bitcoin.
Barclays, Credit Suisse, Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce, HSBC, MUFG and State Street have
teamed up to work on the “utility settlement coin”
which was created by Switzerland’s UBS to make
financial markets more efficient.
The move comes as the project shifts into a new
phase of development, in which its members aim to
deepen discussions with central banks and to work
on tightening up its data privacy and cyber security
protections.
Hyder Jaffrey, head of strategic investment and
fintech innovation at UBS, said: “We have been in
discussions with central banks and regulators and we
will continue that over the next 12 months with the
aim of a limited ‘go live’ at the back end of 2018.”
Blockchain technology is a complex set of algorithms
that allows so-called cryptocurrencies — including
bitcoin — to be traded and verified electronically over
a network of computers without a central ledger.
Having initially been skeptical about it because of
worries over fraud, banks are now exploring how they
can exploit the technology to speed up back-office
settlement systems and free billions in capital tied up
supporting trades on global markets.
“The distributed ledger is one of the most innovative
technologies out there,” said Lee Braine from the
chief technology office of Barclays’ investment bank.
“From reducing risk to improving capital efficiency in
financial markets we see several benefits of this
project.”
The utility settlement coin, based on a product
developed by Clearmatics Technologies, aims to let
financial groups pay each other or to buy securities,
such as bonds and equities, without waiting for
traditional money transfers to be completed.
Instead they would use digital coins that are directly
convertible into cash at central banks, cutting the
time, cost and capital required in post-trade
settlement and clearing.
The coins, each convertible into different currencies,
would be stored using blockchain, or distributed
ledger technology, allowing them to be swapped
quickly for the financial securities being traded.
Existing members of the project are Deutsche Bank,
Banco Santander, BNY Mellon and NEX.
Jaffrey said: “This isn’t going to come in with a big
bang, it is going to come in with a series of
developments over time.” He said that in the first
instance, from the end of next year, he expected the
utility settlement coin to be used for banks to pay
each other in different currencies.
Peter Randall, founder of the UK-based rival Setl, said
there were still questions over whether payments
using a quasi-central bank currency would be
considered certain and risk-free enough to achieve
“settlement finality” — reducing the capital and liquid
assets that need to be held against them. But Jaffrey
said that “following legal, regulatory and accounting
viewpoints, we now feel we have a structure that
gives us a basis to move on to phase three with a
workable structure” for achieving “settlement finality”.





https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/09/six-global-banks-join-forces-create-digital-currency/

The end is indeed nearer than we think.

Sunnymatey:
The end is indeed nearer than we think.

With this information, price of bit coin will increase surely