The OpenCSD platform enables any market participant to commission and run a permissioned registry service for payments, settlement and clearing of cash and other financial instruments. It can be used co-operatively or deployed by a single institution to maintain registers for their own customers.

Benchmarked to settle billions of transactions a day in real-time, OpenCSD has been designed to be compatible with existing and forthcoming regulations such as the European CSDR, says Peter Randall, CEO of SETL.

"Our OpenCSD platform will revolutionise the way securities depositories and payments systems are organised," he says. "A group of participants can now permission a working blockchain platform in a matter of minutes and jointly record and settle changes in ownership. This will help bring competition into a segment of financial markets which has thus far been dominated by quasi-monopolistic incumbents.”

Enabling the interaction of different participants, including custodians, registrars and payment institutions, OpenCSD comprises a permissioned membership structure, and control functions across clearing, settlement and corporate actions. Liquidity functionality, including collateral and repo facilities, is also included, alongside a secure messaging system for transmitting ISO messages and bespoke communications between participants.

Says Randall: “The OpenCSD platform heralds a new era of interoperability, efficiency and flexibility for issuers and asset owners alike, to collaborate and establish their own settlement destinations. It is a means for market participants to empower themselves and to design services around their own needs and cost expectations. ”

He says the subscription-based service will initially be made available to a limited number of subscribers for the first phase of the roll-out. In addition, SETL will establish a development partner programme to engage with fintech shops to design and build around the platform.

The firm in April struck a deal with Computershare to apply the technology to the Australian markets, bringing together issuers, asset owners, brokers, regulators and market infrastructure providers.