IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), a key player in critical information, analytics and solutions, has announced a partnership with METACO, the provider of security-critical software and infrastructure to Tier 1 banking institutions operating in the crypto-asset ecosystem.
As mentioned in an update shared with Crowdfund Insider, the partnership delivers post-trade securities processing capabilities in digital assets for financial institutions.
As the institutional adoption of digital assets continues to accelerate, banking platforms and financial institutions are “hindered by the lack of available institutional-grade infrastructure to fit their needs.”
In order to address this requirement, IHS Markit’s post-trade securities processing platform is integrated with METACO Harmonize, a secure digital asset orchestration system, to “provide a single multi-asset platform for financial institutions to securely custody and manage digital assets alongside traditional assets.”
This integrated platform offers access for institutional clients to “a highly scalable, multi-tenant software solution that secures, automates and standardizes the trade, settlement and corporate actions lifecycles.”
Ankush Zutshi, VP, corporate actions and securities processing, IHS Markit, stated:
“The partnership provides a seamless integration and utilizes both firms’ cloud first philosophy and infrastructure, with IHS Markit’s Integrated Message Bridge (IMB) providing the gateway between the movement of traditional and digital assets, while leveraging the industry standard messaging protocols inherent within our post-trade securities platform.”
Zutshi added:
“We are excited to partner with METACO to provide a unified, integrated solution for the secure orchestration of digital asset workflows and the safekeeping of digital assets along with traditional.”
METACO Harmonize enables institutions to “securely manage any end-to-end digital asset use cases from cryptocurrency custody and trading to tokenization, smart contract management and decentralized finance (DeFi).”
As the digital asset industry matures, most organizations require optionality to “reduce the risk of third-party dependency, seeking to work with multiple vaults, sub-custodians, and liquidity providers.”
METACO Harmonize says it “delivers the most flexible and secure custody solutions in the market in combination with the secure orchestration of workflows across the entire digital stack.”
It transforms the complexity of working with multiple self-custody providers, custodians, and other solutions “into an end-to-end secure, highly scalable, and agile stack with full distribution of all processes to eliminate any single point of failure.”
Seamus Donoghue, VP of Strategic Alliances METACO, remarked:
“There remain many frictions for banks and other large financial institutions entering the crypto markets. METACO Harmonize, our digital asset orchestration platform, is a unique offering that ensures end-to-end security with no single point of failure across all digital asset processes while delivering the scalability and agility required by the world`s largest financial institutions.”
Donoghue added:
“Our partnership with IHS Markit integrates their market-leading post-trade securities processing capabilities to provide firms with the highest level of security while delivering the flexibility and agility they need to successfully operate at scale and with agility in the rapidly growing digital asset industry.”
The IHS Markit Securities Processing solution “enables clients to redefine their post-trade technologies and processes to gain a competitive advantage, achieve market differentiation and accelerate business growth.”
It allows users to “replace multiple applications and discrete processes with a cloud platform and integrated post-trade framework that automates and standardizes securities processing across the trade and settlement lifecycle.”
IHS Markit offers data, software and technology platforms and managed services to address some of the most pressing challenges in financial markets. IHS Markit helps customers “better understand complicated markets, reduce risk, operate more efficiently and comply with financial regulation.”