"Wall Street's Bookkeeper" Enters Test Phase of DLT Replatforming Along With 15 Major Banks

DTCC enters active trial phase for TIW replatformingThe move to a blockchain platform comes at a time when many financial institutions are trialling the technology.

According to the press release published on Nov. 6, the DTCC is working alongside 15 of the world's leading banks to test the DLT based replatforming of the warehouse.

Who is involved?The DTCC's press release also sheds some light on the parties involved and indicates that the project is comprised of a consortium of IBM, Axoni, and R3. The consortium has reportedly "Recorded the functionality" of the warehouse through DLT and cloud-based platforms over the last 18 months.

Greg Schvey, one of Axoni's co-founders, elaborated on how the funding is more than just an important financial shot in the arm, but also indicative of a "Deep strategic" alliance with many of the world's major financial institutions who are actively implementing and innovating DLT themselves.

The project began in 2016The DTCC has been working on how to implement DLT for several years and the origins of this particular DLT project are found in early 2016.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the DTCC launched a proof-of-concept along with several high-profile financial institutions such as JPMorgan and Bank of America to demonstrate that complex post-trade events could effectively be managed via DLT in a peer-to-peer network.

The DTCC published a press release documenting the timeline of the project in 2018.Most recently, a 19-week study led by the DTCC in collaboration with both Accenture and R3, reportedly found that DLT is scalable enough to support the high daily trade volumes of the U.S. equity market.

DLT technology faces stumbling blocks and industry hesitancyOn Oct. 16, a report compiled by consulting and technology services provider Capgemini, along with the French bank BNP Paribas, purportedly revealed findings showing that DLT is not yet able to meet financial market demands.

There is no existing uniform legal framework for regulating DLT and the report highlights this as a major impediment to any future development.

In spite of this setback, the next phase of DTCC's TIW replatforming is expected to be rolled out in Q1 2019.