SEB and Nasdaq to Develop Mutual Fund Trading Platform Based on Blockchain Technology

SEB, the Nordic financial services group, and Nasdaq, Inc. have announced a joint project to test a developed prototype for a  mutual fund trading platform based on blockchain technology. The aim is to increase efficiency in the processing of purchases and sales of fund units and to create a unit ledger – an area which today is largely characterized by manual routines, long settlement cycles and paper driven processes. The concept of the project indicates that, by subscribing to a private blockchain, the various market participants—fund companies, distributors and others—will be able to share a distributed database in which all transactions and changes are registered among all participants in real-time. The cooperation agreement will allow SEB and Nasdaq will continue to develop the technology with the end goal of creating a working prototype, which will be based on the Chain.com blockchain ledger. In addition, the two parties have opened a channel for collaboration with additional interested parties on building a uniformed market infrastructure for Sweden’s fund market.