Five Biggest UK Fund Houses Working On Secret Blockchain Project

R3 blockchain consortium and Hyperledger are the industry-wide initiatives that have brought together banks, fintech companies and startups to explore into the blockchain technology.

Now according to latest reports, five of the biggest fund houses based in the UK have come together to work on a secret project that aims to test whether the blockchain technology could help in saving billions of pounds in trading costs.

The Financial Times reported that Schroders and Aberdeen Asset Management, are working on the project with Columbia Threadneedle Investments. Sources familiar with project told the news source that Aviva Investors and Henderson Global Investors are also involved in the discussions.

Schroders is the second largest listed fund house in Europe by assets. It manages £294.8 billion (as of 30 September 2015) on behalf of institutional and retail investors, financial institutions and high net worth clients from around the world, invested in a broad range of active strategies across equities, fixed income, multi-asset, alternatives and real estate.

Aberdeen Asset Management is the third largest listed fund house in Europe by assets. It is a global asset manager and a FTSE 100 company. It is based in 26 countries with 37 offices, over 750 investment professionals and around 2,790 staff overall. Its assets under management were £283.7 billion as of 30 September 2015.

Columbia Threadneedle is a leading global asset management group that provides a broad range of actively managed investment strategies and solutions for individual, institutional and corporate clients around the world. With over 2000 people including more than 450 investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia, it manages US$472 billion of assets across developed and emerging market equities, fixed income, asset allocation solutions and alternatives.

Aviva Investors is a global asset manager with expertise in real estate, fixed income, equity and multi-asset. Its investment intelligence covers major markets, where it has currently invested £267bn (as at 30 June 2015) on behalf of its customers.

Henderson Global Investors is an international investment company, with a strong reputation and a history that dates back to 1934. It currently manages £81.5bn and employs more than 900 members of staff worldwide (as at 30 September 2015).

“It is the first time asset managers have come together to experiment with blockchain, which is a giant, online public ledger. Banks have been working together for months to unpack the technology, which proponents claim will revolutionise finance”, Financial times reported.

These fund giants aim to explore various applications of technology, including trading illiquid securities – to accelerate the process of moving ownership of illiquid securities from one asset manager to another, a process that can currently take several days. The asset managers believe that if the project is successful, they would be able to lower cost significantly by eliminating the intermediaries (banks) as well as by requiring lesser manpower.