JPMorgan Chase & Co has tested a new blockchain platform for the issuance of financial instruments, Reuters reported.
The trial was conducted with a number of participants including the National Bank of Canada, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Pfizer and Legg Mason’s Western Asset and other investors in the certificate of deposit. The objective was to streamline origin, settlement, interest rate payments and other processes.
The test involved mirroring the National Bank of Canada’s $150 million offering on the same day of a one-year floating-rate Yankee certificate of deposit.
“Blockchain-related technologies have the potential to bring about major change in the financial services industry,” David Furlong, senior vice president of artificial intelligence, venture capital and blockchain at National Bank of Canada, said in a statement.
The new platform has been built using JPMorgan’s open-source blockchain platform ‘Quorum.’
Umar Farooq, head of blockchain initiatives for JPMorgan’s corporate and investment bank, said that the bank is considering spinning off Quorum as the technology has attracted significant interest. He said that the spin-off idea has received considerable interest from financial institutions and tech companies.
He further revealed the bank’s plans to bolster the Quorum team with more engineers from its other divisions who have become familiar with the technology.
