Following an effort to investigate sharing ledger technology, Citi, JPMorgan, Mastercard, Swift, and Deloitte are a few of the significant financial services firms collaborating to simulate multiasset transactions in US dollars.
According to a statement released recently, the research project, named Regulated Settlement Network (RSN) proof-of-concept (PoC), will investigate the possibility of bringing securities like investment-grade debt and U.S. Treasury bonds, as well as money from commercial banks and wholesale central banks, to a single regulated venue.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s New York Innovation Centre will serve as a technical observer.
“In the current digital economy, financial market infrastructures might have to settle a variety of digital assets under clear legal guidelines. Global head of payments at Citi Services Debopama Sen stated in the announcement, “Citi looks forward to exploring the opportunities of this project.”
“The next generation of market infrastructures, where programmable settlements are 24/7 and frictionless, could be unlocked by the application of shared ledger technology to dollar settlements,” stated Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president for blockchain and digital assets at Mastercard.
Concepts like central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have been divisive in the US. Although Jerome Powell, the chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, has informed Congress that the Fed has no interest in a system that would allow it to view user data, CBDCs have grown to be a contentious issue in the presidential race.
Participants in the programme are not obligated to continue with any further study stages after the first is over. The announcement stated that the goal of the partnership was to reach “further consensus on the use of shared ledger technology in the U.S. financial system,” and that the results will be publicised after they are finalised.
According to Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of blockchain and digital assets at Mastercard, “the application of shared ledger technology to dollar settlements could unlock the next generation of market infrastructures – where programmable settlements are 24/7 and frictionless.”
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), the securities industry’s internal standards body, will oversee the programme. TD Bank N.A., U.S. Bank, USDF, Wells Fargo, Visa, and Zions Bancorp are among the other participants.