Scorechain, the Luxembourg-based company has announced today the constitution of an innovative group of 10 key players of the Luxembourg fund industry to explore Blockchain technology’s impact on the asset management industry.
Ten founding members representing major financial institutions including BIL, BNP Paribas, CACEIS, European Fund Administration, HSBC, ING Luxembourg, Pictet, RBC Investor & Treasury Services, Société Générale Bank & Trust, and Professional Services firm PwC Luxembourg have joined forces with Scorechain.
The initiative called Fundchain, began in the summer and explores how Distributed Ledger Technology may help the fund industry improve efficiency and create new business opportunities. For Pierre Gérard, CEO of Scorechain “As any Blockchain initiative the network effect is the main key to success. We aim to move beyond slideware and begin developing prototypes to test their integration within existing infrastructures. We have already identified several use cases in the fund distribution and asset servicing industry that could be interesting topics.”
Indeed, Blockchain technology could be a game changer in this highly-regulated ecosystem where several intermediaries interact with each other through huge manual processes prone to human error.
Nick Maton, Head of HSBC Securities Services in Luxembourg states: “Our participation in Fundchain allows HSBC to provide genuine thought leadership into developing solutions for clients by embracing new technology which in turn can be used to mitigate risk and improve efficiency. Working collaboratively allows us to jointly define solutions that are built by the industry for the industry.”
Pierre Olivier Rotheval, Head of Innovation at Banque Internationale à Luxembourg adds “The Fundchain initiative, built on Blockchain technology, has the potential to develop game-changing solutions for the fund industry. To be part of it was natural to us: supporting innovation and the national ecosystem of startups is a central component of our strategy. Luxembourg fund industry is a global leader, innovation and collaboration are necessary to keep this leading position.” For Sebastien Danloy, CEO of RBC Investor Services Bank SA, “Blockchain should be viewed as a fundamental infrastructure. It will be a key part of how the client experience is reconfigured and retooled and the funds industry needs to tale the rise of Blockchain and Fintech seriously, learning from and working with this emerging sector to turn potential disruption into opportunities.”
Around the world, many projects such as Fundchain have been created to evaluate the potential impact of Blockchain on different sectors. Today, the technology is considered as a major innovation. Where Internet stands for the web of information, Blockchain is the web of values.
Therefore, according to Frédéric Simon, Manager Securities Change Management & Client Solutions at ING Luxembourg: “As an active player in the fund industry, ING was very keen to participate in a local initiative targeting a topic so specific to Luxembourg’s financial center. Development of Blockchain technology is something ING is following very closely, through a central team and as a participant of other worldwide initiatives. We highly value collaboration between Luxembourg financial institutions as a way to act together for the development of Luxembourg financial center.” Alexandre Pirlet, Head of Products and Client Solutions at BNP Paribas Securities Services says: “We welcome this new initiative and look forward to playing an active part in it. We believe this technology can help transform the way asset managers distribute their funds, reduce costs and speed up the investment process. It is great to see the industry coming together to seize these opportunities.”
For François Génaux, Financial Services Consulting leader: “Within PwC we invest heavily in technology and expect change coming from the many Fintech initiatives. Such change also drives our focus on transformation and digitisation. In particular, we strongly believe that Blockchain technology could enable the asset management industry to work more efficiently, more transparently and in a collaborative mode. We are therefore extremely happy to participate to the FundChain initiative, which has the objective to demonstrate the applicability of this technology to investment funds and showcase its flexibility. As the leader in advising and auditing clients in this area, we are committed to the asset management industry and to proposing innovative solutions for the future.”
Over the coming weeks, Fundchain will be looking to announce their key findings from the research taking place.
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