LSEG’s move comes as several leading financial institutions are talking about the potential for blockchain to streamline the process of issuing and trading financial assets
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) is looking into using blockchain to build what it described on Monday as “an end-to-end digital market ecosystem to raise and transfer capital across asset classes”.
Murray Roos, head of capital markets at London Stock Exchange Group, earlier told the Financial Times that the London-based exchange had been weighing the potential for a blockchain-powered trading venue for nearly a year and had reached an “inflection point”.
Blockchain, best known as the technology underpinning crypto currencies like bitcoin and other crypto assets, is a digital ledger which records and verifies transactions.
London Stock Exchange Group’s move comes as several leading financial institutions are talking about the potential for blockchain to streamline the process of issuing and trading financial assets.
London Stock Exchange Group is considering plans to build an end-to-end digital market ecosystem that will allow for the raising and transfer of capital in a more seamless, cost efficient way across asset classes, the firm told Reuters.
Roos earlier told the Financial Times in an interview that London Stock Exchange Group is certainly not building anything around crypto assets, but is rather looking to use the technology to improve the efficiency of buying, selling and holding traditional assets.
The idea is to use digital technology to make a process that is slicker, smoother, cheaper and more transparent and to have it regulated, Roos was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
The Financial Times said that the London Stock Exchange Group is exploring the possibility of a separate legal entity for the digital markets business and it hoped to have this running within a year, subject to regulatory approvals.
The firm is already in talks with regulators, several jurisdictions, the British government and Treasury, according to the report.