Connecting Private Markets on Corda

By: The R3 Team


In a panel session during the startup track at CordaCon 2020, representatives from Archax, Fragmos Chain, and VALK spoke to R3’s David Vatchev about connecting private markets on Corda.

As David highlighted, the way startups are leveraging Corda to digitize and connect private markets is a great use case that plays to Corda’s privacy, security and scalability. He added: “It’s very interesting and exciting to showcase to you how different startups are tackling this unique problem in different ways.” The panellists went on to do just that.

Kicking off the session, Graham Rodford of Archax described how his company is using Corda to build the first FCA regulated digital asset exchange, delivering major benefits for all participants. “When a transaction occurs, the transaction will be broadcast out to the commission network,” he said. “So the regulator will be able to see all of the transactions on a network. An investment manager will be able to see all transactions that they’re party to, and a prime broker will see all transactions for all investment managers that they have agreements with. And if everyone has access to the same source of truth on a distributed ledger, then it leads to huge efficiency gains in the back office.”

“We must guarantee that trade data cannot be accessed or tampered with by a third party. Corda is the best technology to be able to provide such a guarantee.” – Daniel Ivanier, Founder & CEO, Fragmos Chain

Daniel Ivanier from Fragmos Chain then told the audience about his firm’s Corda-based platform for financial derivatives. He described how inefficiencies, duplication and disconnects in matching and reconciling derivatives cost banks up to US$8bn per year worldwide. And he added: “How can we resolve these issues? Three answers: automation, Corda and collaboration. Our blockchain platform automates all processes in the lifecycle of a derivative trade. What is completely new is that the information related to the trade is shared between the participants so they have exactly the same view of it – meaning there cannot be any discrepancy, and eliminating the need for reconciliation and manual tasks.”

Finally, Elie Azzi from VALK talked about using Corda to digitize, manage and trade unlisted assets, by building an end-to-end digital transaction tool based on Corda that boosts efficiency, transparency, speed and security for all market participants. “Whether you’re an investment bank, fund manager or asset manager, we’re here to help you automate your processes, interact with investors and offer them deals 100 percent online,” he explained. “On the VALK solution’s admin interface, you can keep a close eye on your processes and investors while saving 50 percent on back- and middle-office costs. You’ll be able to create your deals from A to Z and set up your own data room for each deal you present to investors. You can also decide what criteria the investors you onboard must match after KYC. And once you’ve onboarded them, you can track their progress and activity on one simple dashboard.”

If you’d like to hear more about how Corda is opening up new vistas of opportunity in connecting private markets, click here to view this fascinating panel session in full.