7 Financial Firms Test Blockchain for Data Management

Credit Suisse, Citi and HSBC are among seven financial firms to participate in a data management trial announced today and conducted with support from blockchain firms Axoni and R3CEV.

Featuring buy-side and sell-side firms, the multi-month effort envisioned how a distributed ledger prototype could be built to enhance risk management, cost and efficiency issues when managing financial reference data. Also involved was the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), a trade group representing US securities firms.

According to a release, the prototype used Axoni Core, the startup’s proprietary distributed ledger software to simulate the collaborative management of reference data used in corporate bond issuance.

The companies said:

"The technology enabled participants to interact with reference data after issuance, with any proposed changes requiring validation by the underwriter to ensure the ledger provided a single, immutable record of all data related to the bond."

According to the companies involved, the project was able to demonstrate how regulators and network participants can use the technology to see which parties on a ledger have created, issued and proposed amendments to a data record.

In statements, David Rutter, CEO of R3, and Emmanuel Aido, Credit Suisse's blockchain and distributed ledger lead, spoke to the benefits that this new approach to data management could bring to the financial industry.

"Quality of data has become a crucial issue for financial institutions in today’s markets. Unfortunately, their middle and back offices rely on legacy systems and processes – often manual – to manage and repair unclear, inaccurate reference data," Rutter said.

Data center image via Shutterstock