The International Securities Services Association (ISSA) has endorsed the CSD Working Group on DLT (distributed ledger technology), as it looks to boost blockchain adoption for the post-trade.
As a part of ISSA, the CSD (central securities depository) Working Group on DLT will initially focus on digital assets with a goal to establish a business framework for how these assets could be used in the post-trade space.
The framework will identify key definitions, classifications, services and post trade service provider roles. Findings from the use case on digital assets are expected to be published in the second quarter.
“There is a lot of potential for DLT in securities processing and the work being led by the CSD working group on DLT is tackling a key challenge related to emerging technologies, which is a clear lack of standards,” said Thomas Zeeb, CEO, SIX Securities Services.
The CSD Working Group, which includes SIX Securities Services, Strate, Nasdaq Market Technology, Caja de Valores and SWIFT, recently signed a commitment to demonstrate how DLT can be implemented for corporate actions processing and proxy voting. Additional CSDs are expected to join the working group in the coming weeks.
Its aim is to explore how existing post-trade standards such as ISO 20022 can be applied to blockchain and other emerging technologies.
The promise of the technology on paper is great, but it is currently missing a key component around standardisation. There is clear value in re-using established business definitions and facilitating interoperability amongst DLT implementations, which this project will demonstrate,” said Stephen Lindsay, head of standards at SWIFT.