Fnality aims to bridge the gap between traditional banking and digital finance to reduce collateral management, settlement time and cost, and enable real-time wholesale payments for financial market transactions on a global scale
"The creation of a new systemically important global payment system is a once-in-a-generation event," said Hyder Jaffrey, Managing Director of Principal Investments and Strategic Initiatives at UBS.
The first real payments were made in sterling using a "Depository Account" opened at the Bank of England.
This account was designed by the central bank in 2021 to encourage innovation and competition, allowing any operator to pool participants' funds.
Backing transactions with central bank money provides reassurance for paying institutions.
Goldman Sachs, Barclays, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, CIBC, Commerzbank, DTCC, Euroclear, ING, KBC, Mizuho, MUFG Bank, Nasdaq Ventures, Nomura, Sumitomo Mitsui, State Street and WisdomTree are among Fnality's shareholders and support Fnality's cross-border and seamless service goals.
"As we step into 2024, we are focused on growing operations and making steady progress towards developing new services for markets within a framework set, governed and approved by the Bank of England," Angus Fletcher, CEO of Fnality UK, said in a statement.
The company's goal is to establish a range of regulated, blockchain-based corporate payment systems for other major currencies, including the dollar and euro, overseen by their respective central banks.
Fnality also plans to bring more participating banks on board and offer services such as digital securities clearing, intraday repo and intraday FX swaps.
