The Securities Services division of France’s BNP Paribas, the 8th largest bank in the world in terms of total assets, has teamed up with Digital Asset (the company) to implement distributed ledger technology (DLT)-enabled trade and settlement applications.
Through its partnership with Digital Asset (the company), BNP Paribas Securities Services will be developing various real-time trade and settlement apps using the DAML smart contract programming language.
As mentioned in a release shared with Crowdfund Insider:
“The new apps will provide market participants in Asia Pacific with real-time access to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX)’s anticipated DLT -based trading and settlement platforms. The apps will also be available to clients in markets that have not integrated DLT, bringing them the benefit of real-time workflows.”
The first of these solutions are expected to launch next year. It will serve as a “smart” elections service for “corporate actions.” DAML smart contracts will be used by the software so that all parties in the corporate action chain will be able to receive corporate action information, including dividend reinvestment or purchase offer decisions “at the same time, reducing processing time, improving operational efficiency and enabling investors” to make more informed decisions based on the most up-to-date market information.
Luc Renard, Head of Financial Intermediaries Client Line & Digital Transformation APAC for BNP Paribas Securities Services, noted that as a major provider of custody solutions and third-party clearing solutions in the APAC region, BNP Paribas serves a key role in ensuring that market participants can take advantage of the latest smart contract tech that underpins innovative clearing, trading and settlement services.
Renard added:
“We are excited to lay the foundations of our direct connectivity to the ASX’s next-generation solution and the future phase of HKEX’s platform with our first DAML-based solutions. We believe that DAML has the potential to emerge as a new standard for international capital markets. As a platform-agnostic, smart contract language, it can be used by almost any trading and settlement platform an exchange might select.”
Jon Rout, Business Development Director APAC for Digital Asset (the company), noted that his company’s work with BNP Paribas could improve how service providers create their post-trade and custodial functions. It can potentially widen “the scope for innovation and reduce risk,”.Rout added.
He also mentioned:
“BNP Paribas Securities Services’ vision of bringing real-time post-trade information to clients and leveraging DAML smart contracts to automate client process flows at scale is an indication of just how transformative DLT will be for custody services.”
As confirmed in the announcement, BNP Paribas will be connecting to the ASX CHESS+ platform and the upcoming HKEX Synapse solution through the new Ledger Application Programming Interface for real-time information flows.
In Australia, BNP Paribas will be operating a segregated node in the ASX CHESS+ distributed ledger, allowing the institution to provide the benefits of smart contract tech to its clients. This will allow the bank’s customers to access real-time data, “rapid innovation” and workflow automation from issuer to investor.
As reported recently, the DAML smart contract language will be integrated with China’s Blockchain Service Network (BSN)