Sell-Side Technology Awards 2019: Best Distributed-Ledger Project—Baton Systems
Baton Systems, which offers two distributed ledger-based platforms for clearing FX transactions and settling margin collateral, wins this year's best DLT project.
Baton Systems wins this year’s best distributed-ledger technology (DLT) project, thanks to its Baton Systems Platform. The company has two distributed ledger-based platforms: one that processes clearing of foreign-exchange (FX) transactions and another that settles margin collateral.
Baton’s FX clearing platform is built on a shared, permissioned distributed ledger that sits on top of existing banking infrastructure. Since its launch in April last year, the FX platform has settled over $10 billion in trades per day and is poised to end the year handling between $70 billion and $120 billion per day. Baton partnered with NEX Optimisation and a global bank on its post-trade solution for spot FX, a project aimed at easing real-time settlement. Arjun Jayaram, Baton Systems’ founder and CEO, says the platform’s success comes from its unique proposition to the industry in that there is no need to replace legacy systems to access the service. “We’ve gone through the hype cycle and have seen that the technology has real potential,” he says. “We can use distributed ledger to solve issues and there’s no need to rip and replace existing technologies. We want to prove that our products work and I think we’ve done that. So now we’re looking to expand our user-base.”
Jayaram adds that using distributed-ledger technology provides more efficient ways of sharing information needed for clearing and settlement as each party already has their own golden copy of the data. This allows banks and their counterparties to automate reconciliation or exceptions checking, a far cry from the previous method of manually checking each data point.
According to Jayaram, the platform speeds up clearing and settlement to three minutes from 48 hours, and counts Citi, CME Group and the Bank of England among its clients. He says the FX platform currently settles six currencies, although Baton will be testing at least six more during the second quarter of this year and possibly expanding the number of currencies it handles to around 10.
Baton’s next step is to work on a system for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s (Isda’s) Common Domain Model (CDM). CDM is intended to be a single, standard way of representing derivatives trade events digitally. Baton participated, and won, a hackathon sponsored by Isda to host the CDM on its platform. “We’re bullish about Isda’s Common Domain Model as it changes the market in a big way,” Jayaram says.
According to Jayaram, DLT has come so far that even though it is still evolving, the industry is starting to solve more problems. He says there is still a long way to go but those companies and projects with viable solutions are the ones that will grow the technology further.
Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.
To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@waterstechnology.com or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.waterstechnology.com/subscribe
You are currently unable to print this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (point 2.4), printing is limited to a single copy.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (clause 2.4), an Authorised User may only make one copy of the materials for their own personal use. You must also comply with the restrictions in clause 2.5.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
More on Awards & Rankings
Buy-Side Technology Awards 2024: All the winners and why they won
The 39 category winners of the 2024 Buy-Side Technology Awards.
BST Awards 2024: Best buy-side performance measurement and attribution product—FactSet
Product: FactSet Performance Solutions
BST Awards 2024: Best buy-side newcomer (vendor or product)—Exegy
Product: nxFramework
BST Awards 2024: Best buy-side managed data service—S&P Global Market Intelligence
Product: iLEVEL Managed Data Services
BST Awards 2024: Best portfolio accounting platform—SS&C Advent
Product: Geneva and APX