Fintech Imperium Markets has put together a top-notch independent advisory board to help it engage with the banks and regulators as more financial market participants explore trading and settling transactions with blockchain technology.
Imperium Markets Pty Limited has established an Independent Advisory Board that consists of Imperium Chairman Rod Lewis, former Westpac Group Treasurer Curt Zuber, and former MBIA UK Chairman and CEO Chris Weeks.
The Independent Advisory Board will ensure that Imperium’s platform delivers issuance, trading, custody and settlement capabilities in the most efficient manner to the market. It will also have input into how Imperium engages with the banks and regulators.
Imperium Markets says it has received indicative approval from ASX Benchmarks as an Approved Trading Venue (ATV) for the purposes of Australian benchmark BBSW (Bank Bill Swap Rate).
One of the pilots for a new digital Australian dollar will seek to compress the time it takes to settle trades in the $1.5 trillion bond market from two days to zero, removing settlement risks and cutting costs for banks and investors.
Imperium Markets is running one of the 14 pilots of a “central bank digital currency” (CBDC) announced last week by the Reserve Bank of Australia. Imperium, which received a tier 2 financial markets licence from ASIC in 2017 allowing it to create a market for debt securities, counts all the major banks as customers. They use the platform to manage debt issuance to institutional investors.
Major banks will begin digitising contracts that govern their debt financing, and explore trading and settling money market transactions using blockchain technology, in a project that Imperium Markets and the Digital Finance Co-operative Research Centre (DFCRC) will launch in the coming months.
Imperium Markets will launch a major research project into digitalising the $3 trillion wholesale bond and deposit market and running it on blockchain.
Imperium Markets and Digital Finance CRC (DFCRC) will pilot a research project into how the tokenisation of assets and settlements can benefit Australian Money Markets and Debt Capital Markets.
The Reserve Bank of Australia says creating real-world financial assets in a “tokenised” form could unlock billions of dollars in annual savings for banks and other financial institutions by streamlining settlement processes and automating registries.
* Two major banks have used a real central bank digital currency to trade deposit securities.
* It is the first time this has happened using a CBDC that is a claim on the central bank.
* A Senate committee heard lack of regulation in the digital asset area is holding back innovation.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) have released a report on the findings from the joint research project involving industry that explored potential use cases for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in Australia.
Imperium Markets