A group of Paris-based financial technology players, including BNP Paribas and Societe Generale have come together to launch a new DLT venture, Liquidshare, with focus on small business lending.
Built on the Blockchain technology, Liquidshare will transact through real-time settlement, simplify post-trade operations, securities registers consolidation and other processes.
The first of its kind venture to operate on distributed ledger technology, the functions listed above, Liquidshare is poised to become a key player in the post-trade industry and will attract the attention of major decision-makers in the financial and banking industry.
Liquidshare is headed by Thibaud de Maintenant,(formerly of Deutsche Bank), as CEO, and has the support of Paris Europlace with other leading corporates as part of the initiative. The names include Caisse des Depots, Euroclear, Euronext and S2iEM.
“With the launch of Liquidshare, we will use the great potential of the blockchain technology to become a key player in the post-trade industry,” Thibaud said in a statement. “Supported by shareholders across the European financial market ecosystem, this initiative is the first of its kind.”
While Liquidshare may be the first to utilize DLT to disrupt small business finance, including exploring ways to ease borrowers’ access to financing, lowering transaction costs and enabling businesses to raise funds – it is not the first Blockchain consortium or the first to focus on SME financial services.
Last month, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale came together to create another Blockchaiin Consortium with HSBC, Natixis, Rabobank and Unicredit as the other constituents.
The Digital Trade Chain Consortium is using IBM Blockchain technology to examine its use in domestic and cross-border payments for SMEs.
If you thought where this trail will end, here’s a mild surprise – a third Consortium initiative announced in Januray this year, is already fast-working on a unique area of technology – the application of Blockchain in the logistics space.
Headed by TKI Dinalog, the Netherlands-based group has 16 members. And the areas of transactions addressed will include Blockchain-knowhow-based logistics, global trade, supply chain financing and more.
