The commissioning of the Depository Trust & Clearing (DTCC) Project Ion platform is now operational. So far, it was in its development phase as an alternative settlement blockchain based on Distributed Ledger Technology (DTL). This go-live is part of a parallel production environment with an average of nearly 100,000 daily bilateral equity trades. A figure that can reach a peak of 160,000 transactions during peak days.
DTCC wants to speed up transaction processing time
The Wall Street Giant Depository Trust & Clearing (DTCC), which manages all stock market transactions in the United States, has just made a big announcement. In fact, he proceeds to launch of a new private platform, whose role will be to accelerate transactions on the blockchain. It is through a Press release that DTCC introduced Project Ion as the parallel alternative settlement blockchain.
It was in 2020 that this platform was launched as a pilot program before later becoming a development program. We can read in the press release published by the DTCC that nearly 100,000 bilateral transactions on shares are now possible on a daily basis. This figure can even reach a ceiling of 160,000 during peak days. Despite this commissioning, the Depository Trust Company remains the authoritative source. Project Ion will leverage blockchain technology to support T+O settlement charges.
Setting up the platform is essential, because it takes on average up to 48 hours to finalize a stock market transaction. Project Ion does not come to put an end to the traditional regulations of the DTCC. On the contrary, the launch will be done in parallel, and the customer will opt for the technology that corresponds to him.
DTCC Succeeds Where Classic Blockchains Fail
The democratization of blockchain technology is gaining ground. We see more and more traditional financial companies taking an interest in it. The latest to date remain Goldman Sachs (GS) and JPMorgan (JPM). The authorization of the DTCC project, which is however private, remains an exception in the industry. We remember that classic blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum have not yet had this type of approval.
The commissioning of Project Ion is also the result of collaboration between DTCC and several other companies. The most important being Citadel Securities, Credit Suisse (CS), BNY Mellon (BK), Barclays (BCS) and Charles Schwab (SCHW). It’s mostly his partnership with software provider R3 which crystallizes the attention. Indeed, DTCC wishes to launch its platform based on the DLT Corda software from R3.
Conclusion
In short, the Project Ion platform will have to offer an alternative, reliable, secure and clean processing service to customers. If necessary, it can rely on the DTL for companies wishing to benefit from emerging technology. DTCC called on the collaboration of several partners to carry out this project. It partnered with leading enterprise technology provider R3 to leverage its Corda DLT software. It should be noted that this commissioning does not detract from the traditional settlement systems which remain the benchmark.
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