The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has been actively involved in blockchain research for quite some time now. It was one of the seven firms to take part in the successful test of blockchain technology and smart contracts to manage post-trade lifecycle events for standard North American single name credit default swaps. In addition, DTCC recently made a financial investment in blockchain startup Digital Asset Holdings and has also joined the Linux Foundation to support the Hyperledger project, a collaborative effort to advance the Blockchain technology.

In a letter to shareholders, Michael Bodson, President and CEO of DTCC, called blockchain technology as ‘once-in-a-generation’ opportunity to transform the post-trade processes.

“We are excited by this once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine the post-trade infrastructure to address long-standing operational challenges”, he said.

Bodson noted that 2015 will be remembered as the year that the financial industry discovered blockchain, which quickly became the most hyped technological advancement in decades. He said that for most part of 2015, DTCC researched, explored and tested the platform while meeting with virtually all of the major technology players in this field.

In addition, the company has assembled an integrated team of subject matter experts, from across the enterprise, to define potential business applications. To this end, he said that an “Office of Blockchain Strategy and Research” has been established to coordinate activities.

Bodson added that that DTCC aims to be at the forefront of blockchain development and spearhead industry wide efforts in this space.

“We intend to be at the forefront of this issue by helping to spearhead industry experiments and use cases, serving as a leader in the governance of open source, fostering collaboration among market participants and by making strategic investments in partners that can help advance the technology”, Bodson wrote.