HSBC forex trading costs cut sharply by blockchain - executive

HSBC forex trading costs cut sharply by blockchain - executive
 

LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC has reduced the cost of settling foreign exchange trades by a quarter through its blockchain-based system, an executive overseeing the project told Reuters, offering a glimpse of the savings the technology could offer banks.
The bank processes between 3,500 and 5,000 trades a day on its "FX Everywhere" system, settling trades worth $350 billion (£273 billion), Mark Williamson, chief operating officer of FX cash trading and risk management, told Reuters.
The HSBC platform is a rare example of blockchain technology being put to practical use by a major bank. Last month the London-based lender said it had processed FX trades worth $250 billion on the platform since February last year.
The fresh details of the scale of the HSBC project suggest that the potential of blockchain to make significant cost savings in the financial services industry - long touted by its proponents of the technology - is being realised.
"We going at a pace now," Williamson said. "We're able to demonstrate that this is not a one-off proof of concept or just one or two trades."
Supporters say blockchain - a shared database that can securely process and settle transactions without the need for third-party checks - could transform industries from finance to real estate by obviating cumbersome and inefficient processes.
That hype, though, has rarely been backed up by examples of large companies moving beyond tests on a limited scale.
Financial institutions have so far taken a cautious approach with the technology originally conceived to underpin of the bitcoin cryptocurrency. Many are concerned by uncertainty over security, regulation and the impact on existing systems.

February 14, 2019 by Tom Wilson
 
 

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Meet The Blockchain Startups That Want To Change How We Communicate     When was the last time you actually read a terms of service agreement before clicking "accept"? Although it's become commonplace to see and agree to these digital policies that are in practical terms only offering a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, each one of those accept buttons is another step toward giving up our rights to privacy and our personal data that may in fact be far more valuable than we realize. Facebook's privacy scandals serve to illustrate that personal data has become a valuable commodity in the digital age. The latest allegation against the social network was that it had given more than 150 companies far greater access to people's data than it had disclosed previously, according to the New York Times. And that revelation came after a string of others that started almost a year ago when we learned that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had used Facebook's data to influence the 2016 presidential campaign. Cheap and instant communications coupled with the protection of our privacy would be the best of both worlds. But how can this be achieved? Decentralization may be the answer. Uncensorable communication, personal cloud servers, and private data streaming would allow users to take back control of their privacy and personal data. Blockchain technology could be used to revolutionize the way we chat to each other, from basic text messages to grandiose interconnected communities, and a few startups are bringing the best of decentralization to bear on our future communications. Uncensorable Communications Freedom House, a U.S.-based independent watchdog group, said that internet freedom had declined for the eighth consecutive year in 2018, with an increasing number of governments tightening control over their citizens’ activities on the web. Regardless of the agenda, many voices are monitored and censored on social media, and once governments have such power it's not a great leap for them to begin using it to orchestrate influence campaigns and manipulate society. India's government has recently proposed to introduce a policy which would require companies to take down any content deemed inappropriate by authorities. Censorship efforts like these will be far more difficult to implement in the decentralized world. Mainframe is a privacy platform and an example of a company seeking to build secure communications. Users have the ability to send and receive private messages on a network that is designed to prevents data from ever being censored. Only the user with the correct keys will be able to unlock the data. February 8, 2019 by Sherman Lee   READ FULL ARTICLE https://www.forbes.com/sites/shermanlee/2019/02/08/meet-the-blockchain-startups-that-want-to-change-how-we-communicate/#4ef721d36b20

Meet The Blockchain Startups That Want To Change How We Communicate    When was the last time you actually read a terms of service agreement before clicking "accept"? Although it's become commonplace to see and agree to these digital policies that are in practical terms only offering a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, each one of those accept buttons is another step toward giving up our rights to privacy and our personal data that may in fact be far more valuable than we realize. Facebook's privacy scandals serve to illustrate that personal data has become a valuable commodity in the digital age. The latest allegation against the social network was that it had given more than 150 companies far greater access to people's data than it had disclosed previously, according to the New York Times. And that revelation came after a string of others that started almost a year ago when we learned that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had used Facebook's data to influence the 2016 presidential campaign. Cheap and instant communications coupled with the protection of our privacy would be the best of both worlds. But how can this be achieved? Decentralization may be the answer. Uncensorable communication, personal cloud servers, and private data streaming would allow users to take back control of their privacy and personal data. Blockchain technology could be used to revolutionize the way we chat to each other, from basic text messages to grandiose interconnected communities, and a few startups are bringing the best of decentralization to bear on our future communications. Uncensorable Communications Freedom House, a U.S.-based independent watchdog group, said that internet freedom had declined for the eighth consecutive year in 2018, with an increasing number of governments tightening control over their citizens’ activities on the web. Regardless of the agenda, many voices are monitored and censored on social media, and once governments have such power it's not a great leap for them to begin using it to orchestrate influence campaigns and manipulate society. India's government has recently proposed to introduce a policy which would require companies to take down any content deemed inappropriate by authorities. Censorship efforts like these will be far more difficult to implement in the decentralized world. Mainframe is a privacy platform and an example of a company seeking to build secure communications. Users have the ability to send and receive private messages on a network that is designed to prevents data from ever being censored. Only the user with the correct keys will be able to unlock the data. February 8, 2019 by Sherman Lee   READ FULL ARTICLE https://www.forbes.com/sites/shermanlee/2019/02/08/meet-the-blockchain-startups-that-want-to-change-how-we-communicate/#4ef721d36b20

AKAMAY and MUFG announce joint venture for blockchain-based online payment network   Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the intelligent edge platform for securing and delivering digital experiences, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (NYSE: MUFG), one of the world’s leading financial groups, today announced an expansion of their relationship through the establishment of a joint venture, the Global Open Network, Inc. (GO-NET) and their plans to offer a new blockchain-based online payment network enabling next-generation transaction security, scale and responsiveness. GO-NET is the result of more than three years of close collaboration between Akamai and MUFG. Both Akamai and MUFG will be investors in GO-NET, which is expected to make the new payment network available in Japan during the first half of 2020. GO-NET aims to provide a comprehensive set of services, including support for existing payment processing functions, pay-per-use, micropayments and other developing IoT-enabled payment transactions. Critical to the joint venture will be Akamai’s innovative Blockchain as a Service solution, which will leverage its globally distributed Intelligent Edge Platform to power the online payment network. Akamai’s Blockchain solution is proven to be capable of processing more than one million transactions per second at under two-second latency per transaction, which is orders of magnitude faster than existing solutions. In addition, transactions executed on the platform will be secured and accelerated by Akamai’s market-leading cloud security and performance offerings, which positions it extremely well as a robust enterprise platform for real-time transactions at scale. MUFG, as one of the world’s leading global financial groups with a long history and excellent reputation for trust, will provide extensive know-how of financial services and expertise in business development to bring sustainable growth and success to the joint venture. “This joint venture with MUFG sets the stage for a new blockchain-based online payment system that can better serve customers’ and partners’ payment processing needs,” said Dr. Tom Leighton, CEO and co-founder of Akamai. “The collaboration between MUFG and Akamai over the last three years has demonstrated what is possible when industry leaders join forces to solve a challenging problem. Akamai and MUFG are committed to delivering innovative solutions at a level of security, scale and responsiveness never before achieved.” February 12, 2019 by Tim Whitman READ FULL ARTICLE https://www.akamai.com/us/en/about/news/press/2019-press/akamai-mufg-announce-joint-venture-for-blockchain-based-online-payment-network.jsp

JPMorgan Chase to create digital coins using blockchain for payments    JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Thursday it plans to launch its own digital coins, called “JPM Coin”, that customers will be able to use for instant transfer of payments over a blockchain network. The largest U.S. bank by assets said customers, on depositing money at the bank, will be issued the cryptocurrency that they will be able to use for transactions over the network with other JPMorgan clients. The coin can be redeemed for a U.S. dollar, so its value will largely remain stable, the bank said bit.ly/2V0lFsV. When one client sends money to another over the blockchain, JPM Coins are transferred and instantaneously redeemed for the equivalent amount of U.S. dollars, reducing the typical settlement time, the bank said. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon once criticized the former high-flying bitcoin, calling it a “fraud” in 2017. Back then Dimon said cryptocurrencies are “worse than tulips bulbs,” referring to a famous market bubble from the 1600s. He tempered his view a few months later, saying he regretted calling bitcoin a fraud, but maintained his disinterest in the cryptocurrency. The bank said in a presentation on its website discussing the new JPM Coin that it was supportive of “cryptocurrencies as long as they are properly controlled and regulated.” “As a globally regulated bank, we believe we have a unique opportunity to develop the capability in a responsible way with the oversight of our regulators,” said JPMorgan’s Head of digital treasury services and blockchain Umar Farooq. JPMorgan also said it believed in the potential of blockchain technology, and expects its new digital coin to yield significant benefits for blockchain use by reducing clients’ counterparty and settlement risk, decreasing capital requirements and enabling instant value transfer. February 14, 2019 by Aparajita Saxena   READ FULL ARTICLE https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jp-morgan-blockchain/jpmorgan-chase-to-create-digital-coins-using-blockchain-for-payments-idUSKCN1Q321P

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