Australian financial instos show support for blockchain


The Australian financial services industry may have seen a shift in sentiment towards blockchain, with major financial institutions supporting BC Gateways’ new blockchain platform, The Gateway.
The platform, which is designed for the global industry to publish and distribute any type of structured data, conducted a pilot in Sydney late last year focused purely on distributing pricing data in the Australian wealth management industry, with IRESS, Aberdeen Standard Investments, Perpetual and Equity Trustees among the participants.
IRESS chief executive, Andrew Walsh, said it was keen to change the way financial data was delivered, and the multiple connectivity options to the BC Gateway would allow them and other participants to quickly implement solutions with minimal changes.
“Through the use of the blockchain, we’re able to significantly improve the timeliness and quality of unit pricing and other fund data which over time we expect to reduce costs and increase efficiency,” he said.
Corporate Trustee Services’ head of global fund services, executive general manager, Harvey Kalman, said The Gateway was a significant breakthrough and looked forward to working with the industry to maximise the benefits.
The platform’s managing director, Gordon Little, said it was encouraging to see the industry’s appetite to work with an operational blockchain product, and, having progressed development to support tax and regulatory reporting, looked forward to launching the service.
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