The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a messaging network used to make cross-border payments, has joined hands with fintech company Symbiont to pilot a blockchain project.
The partnership is aimed at providing more accurate data for financial firms through blockchain technology. The pilot project could help members of the SWIFT platform distribute data almost real-time to global custody clients.
“Through Assembly, Symbiont’s proprietary technology platform and smart contracts will be used “to create a network effect that leverages the 11,000+ institutions connected to SWIFT globally,” according to the press release.
Vanguard, Citigroup, American Century Investments, and Northern Trust are part of the pilot project.
“By bringing Symbiont’s Assembly and smart contracts together with SWIFT’s extensive network, we’re able to automatically harmonize data from multiple sources of a corporate action event. This can lead to significant efficiencies,” Tom Zschach, chief innovation officer at SWIFT, said.
If the pilot is successful, SWIFT will integrate Symbiont’s system into its network and extend it to cover more corporate events and would also consider making it available to the wider SWIFT community.
Symbiont is a leading blockchain technology service provider that aims to solve inefficiencies in the financial marketplace. “Via our smart contract technology, we are enabling market participants to automate the reconciliation process,” Mark Smith, co-founder and chief executive officer of Symbiont said.
