Yesterday BNP Paribas Securities Services (BNPRPS) and Eastspring Investments, a Prudential subsidiary, announced they implemented a blockchain solution for exchange-traded derivatives (ETD) developed by Singapore fintech Hashstacs.
Hashstacs developed the Mercury Platform, which enables counterparties and service providers to share a single data source about trades. In the case of derivatives, broker fee calculations result in a significant proportion of trade breaks or discrepancies. That, in turn, means a lot of time is spent in reconciliations and resolving differences.
The first version of Mercury launched in June 2020, and it’s claimed that within a month, Eastspring and BNPPSS witnessed an 84% reduction in discrepancies, four hours a day less reconciliation, and fewer clients reporting errors.
“We built the solution with long-term partner Eastspring and Singapore fintech STACS, using an agile co-creation approach, leveraging the expertise of the BNP Paribas Design Factory in Singapore,” said Diana Senanayake, CEO South East Asia of BNPPSS.
She continued, “The Mercury solution has the potential to benefit other industry players. It also addresses one of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s ambitions to promote collaboration between local fintech firms and large corporates with a view to positioning Singapore as a regional digital hub.”
Meanwhile, BNPPSS is ramping up blockchain activities around the world. The company recently trialed the transfer of security tokens on the public Ethereum blockchain. It’s also working with Digital Asset on DLT solutions for the Australian and Hong Kong Stock exchanges. And last month, it invested in HQLAX, the collateral management solution.