Switzerland’s stock exchange SIX has reportedly acquired regulatory approval from the financial market supervisor for its SDX bourse. This should help with paving the way for the platform to be deployed with its marketplace for crypto-assets.
Thomas Zeeb, Global Head of Exchanges at SIX, noted that the digitalization of financial or capital markets continues at a rapid pace. While the “final shape” of the market is currently evolving, this is a key milestone in offering institutional investors with a secure and solid infrastructure, Zeeb added.
The approval from financial regulator FINMA also gives SIX the permission to run a central securities depository for crypto-assets, the company confirmed.
As first reported by Reuters, plans for the updated SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) trading platform were first introduced back in 2018, which was quite early in the crypto and blockchain market boom. The digital assets sector has grown rapidly over the years with major cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum paving the way for a more open financial ecosystem.
SDX’s launch had been expected during H1 2019. However, SIX has not yet confirmed when the platform was currently expected to launch.
SDX is based on distributed ledger technology (DLT), which is essentially a digital system for recording crypto-asset transfers across multiple platforms.
SIX’s management noted on Friday (September 9, 2021) that it sees the platform offering an international exchange network for crypto-assets as the client base for these financial instruments continues to grow to include banking institutions, issuers, insurance providers and global investors.
SIX’s management has also noted that SDX would probably provide trading in certain stocks. The exchange may offer more stocks and then even bonds and potentially ETFs as well.
As reported recently, SIX and Inventx have announced that they will be cooperating on Open Finance initiatives.
As part of a strategic partnership, Inventx and SIX will ensure the seamless interconnection of their complementary ix.OpenFinancePlatform and bLink open-finance hubs “going forward.”
Following the cooperation between Swisscom and SIX announced in March, this collaboration is a “second important step towards the implementation of open finance in Switzerland.” These collaborations should allow financial service providers and third-party providers to “gain easier access to the Swiss open-finance ecosystem.”
As mentioned in the announcement:
“Just a year ago, there was a noticeable reluctance to embrace the growing open-finance movement in Switzerland. Not enough standardization or coordination between the various initiatives and market solutions. Inventx and SIX have therefore decided to make their respective platform offers interoperable. In this way, the market will be offered a comprehensive end-to-end solution for the operationalization of open finance in the future.”