Deutsche Bank and Singapore fintech Stacs collaborate on digital assets proof-of-concept

Deutsche Bank Securities Services and Hashstacs Pte Ltd (Stacs) have announced their collaboration to jointly explore a proof-of-concept (POC) related to the technological and practical feasibility of digital assets interoperability, liquidity, cross-border connectivity, and smart contract templates, including the support of sustainability-themed digital bonds.

Stacs, in collaboration with Deutsche Bank Securities Services, was awarded the POC grant on 29 October 2020, which provides funding support for experimentation, development and dissemination of nascent innovative technologies in the financial services sector. The POC grant is part of the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation (FSTI) scheme under the Financial Sector Development Fund administered by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Stacs is a Singapore-headquartered fintech development company providing technology to the financial services sector, focused on capital markets use cases, such as the trade lifecycle management of bonds, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) fintech, structured products and exchange-traded derivatives (ETDs).

"Investors will increasingly need to custodise their digital assets, ensure settlement finality, and have confidence in their safekeeping and security with the support of a bank’s institutional infrastructure," commented Jeslyn Tan, global head of Product Management, Securities Services at Deutsche Bank. "As a result, we see a clear place for an integrated platform that can service cross-border issuer-investor needs in Singapore and around the world.”

 

Standard Chartered live on Cobalt for prime brokerage and executing broking business

The foreign-exchange (FX) and digital asset infrastructure provider Cobalt has announced that Standard Chartered has recently gone live on the platform for its prime brokerage and executing broking business.

Back in February 2020, the announced it had signed as a client of Cobalt and this was followed by investment in July 2020. This announcement demonstrates that they have taken the next step in the partnership and are now live on the platform for both businesses.

Over the past few years, Cobalt has designed and built a 24/7 middle office platform that it is delivering for some of the FX and crypto market’s largest participants, with Standard Chartered the latest to go-live. The provider says that credit management, in prime brokerage businesses in particular, has been widely mismanaged in recent years. Available across all market segments, Cobalt clients can monitor their portfolio of positions and risk across all currencies.

 

Tradeteq collaborating with Microsoft on trade finance distribution 

Tradeteq, a global hub for trade finance distribution, has announced a collaboration with Microsoft. The collaboration enables the build-out of a market infrastructure that is designed to allow financial institutions to run trade finance distribution workflow processes while complying with data residency requirements. Tradeteq will be providing its platform through Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure with access to over 60 regions globally. 

Through utilising Tradeteq’s cloud service, banks will be able to hold, maintain and access data. This should improve access, data resonance and security for institutions utilising Tradeteq’s services. With distributing trade finance assets being a longstanding challenge for banks, having improved access to a product that helps overcome the data issues faced from different jurisdictions should support distribution. 

Tradeteq has also become a partner in Microsoft’s reseller programme, which allows the company to connect and collaborate with potential new clients. 

“Connectivity is a vital component to improving access for banks in trade finance," said Christoph Gugelmann, CEO of Tradeteq. "By using a cloud-based product, financial institutions can improve their ability to connect, trade and distribute trade finance assets - regardless of their location. Connectivity also extends to our role in the reseller programme, allowing us to be readily available for other banks keen to take advantage of our service.”