utrade has launched uClear, which is India’s first blockchain technology driven solution that will enable real time clearing and settlement of contracts across the cash and derivatives segments of the financial markets. The first stage of adoption will be led by the Over-the-Counter (OTC) segments without existing central clearing infrastructure such as foreign exchange (FX) and the fixed income securities markets.
Built on the most adopted blockchain technology – Multichain, uClear will enable exchanges and trading venues to clear trades post execution with greater efficiency through a private blockchain. The solution comes integrated with features such as real time risk management, reporting and transfer instruction generation.
Explaining about the company’s foray into blockchain, Kunal Nandwani, Co-Founder and CEO, uTrade Solutions said, “We believe Blockchain is a very powerful technology that will dramatically change the way the financial services industry operates. Discussing blockchain today is like discussing the internet in 1996. There was lot of hype, a mix of potential and skepticism. Eventually the internet did change our lives for the better. The same is what we foresee with blockchain.”
Outlining the challenges and opportunities associated with this fintech innovation, he went on to add, and “Adoption of such technologies may take a few years due to regulation, legacy infrastructure replacement challenges, and unwillingness to accept transparency. However to the contrary, transparency is the most discernable benefit of the blockchain distributed ledger as transactions can be cryptographically proved.”
uTrade has also announced that the UK based Global Markets Exchange Group (GMEX Group), an exchange technology provider and operator of cost effective electronic exchanges across multiple asset classes in developing and developed markets will be the first to integrate uClear during July 2016 through its GMEX Technologies (GMEX Tech) subsidiary, supported by its development partner Forum Trading Solutions (Forum).
Hirander Misra, CEO of GMEX Group and Chairman of Forum Trading Solutions commented, “We are excited by Blockchain’s potential and in line with GMEX Tech’s focus on fintech innovation and we are exploring a hybrid model where we support existing workflows across our exchange, clearing house, depository and warehouse receipts product suite being offered to exchanges globally and introduce optional new parallel Blockchain driven clearing mechanisms too.” He added, “This helps both GMEX Group and our exchange clients to adapt in an era of rapid change and facilitates greater transparency for the regulators. We look forward to continuing our partnership with uTrade Solutions as we work towards the evolution of hybrid market infrastructure.”
Speaking about the road ahead, Harwinder Sidhu, CTO and Co-Founder, uTrade Solutions said, “At uTrade, the focus is to keep building Blockchain solutions and integrate them with our global clients including exchanges, brokers and other financial institutions. We are ramping up our R&D efforts in order to have a pipeline of products, that is likely change the face of global financial markets.”
Nasdaq was the first stock exchange to successfully record a private securities transaction using its Blockchain technology platform – NASDAQ Linq in December 2015. Nasdaq’s Tallinn Stock Exchange, Estonia’s only regulated securities market and Australia’s biggest stock exchange – ASX are some of the stock exchanges which have been leveraging blockchain for purposes ranging from e-voting to offering post-trade solutions.
