Swiss financial infrastructure firm tests blockchain-based digital assets

A major Swiss financial infrastructure provider has partnered with blockchain startup Digital Asset Holdings to create a securities market infrastructure proof-of-concept product.

SIX Securities Services and Digital Asset Group will create a technology roadmap for how to apply blockchain technology throughout the securities lifecycle.

Distributed ledger technology is at the core of the future of SIX’s post-trading business, according to the division’s CEO Thomas Zeed:

“We need to understand it and, more importantly, its applications and future flexibility to stay ahead of the curve. Partnering with Digital Asset Group is a way to accelerate our own development and leverage their experience in the space.”

The goal of the project is to demonstrate how distributed, encrypted, peer-to-peer processing tools can be integrated into existing securities trading processes. Once the roadmap is completed, the company plans to create a service that can be used.

SIX Securities is part of a suite of services that play an infrastructure role in the Swiss financial industry, including its stock exchange and post-trade clearing services.

According to SIX Securities' annual report, last year SIX Securities processed 409 million clearing transactions and 31 million clearing transactions, with a total processing volume of $3.17 trillion. The company's profit was $43 million.

The company was formed in 2008 following the merger of SWX Group, Telecurse Group and SIX Group, and it also provides transaction services and financial data and is a card payment processor in Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg.

The company will demonstrate an early distributed ledger prototype at a seminar in Geneva later this month.