SETL To Join EU Settlement On Receiving French Approval

Financial Times, on 23rd of October, reported that Setl which was founded in 2015, to provide the financial services industry with the benefits of blockchain technology had received approval from the French securities regulator to run a central securities depository, and thus enter into an E.U. settlement system.

Setl can now connect to the Target2-Securities platform as they have received a license from the Autorite des Marches Financiers. The Target2-Securities platform is a European Central Bank run €1 billion pan-European networks for securities settlement to escalate the speed of cross-border payments.

Setl was launched three years ago by Chi-X Peter Randal, the former CEO of the alternative European Stock exchange, and Anthony Culligan, the founder of Roolo, a peer-to-peer bitcoin trading website. Setl uses a “permissioned ledger”, which can be viewed by only a small number of trusted parties. This technology, as Financial Times emphasises is not one that is used by most blockchain developers.

The newspaper also noted that the settlement is expected to launch in early 2019, that is, as soon as the official approval for Setl to join the depository is issued, and all the other formalities are completed. The approval might take a few weeks to be granted.

Most countries of the European Union have been looking forward to the implementation of blockchain technology in several areas.

The European Blockchain Partnership was created and launched by Norway and several other EU member states to promote and encourage decentralises solutions throughout the union, and to establish safer, faster and more efficient cross-border services like logistics and the regulatory sphere. As of September, 2018, the partnership has been extended between 27 countries including U.K., France, Germany, and Malta.

In early October, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) announces that it had allocated a budget of over 1 million euro for monitoring fintech and crypto assets.

Rishma Banerjee

Rishma is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and has a special place in her life for sifting through all sorts of random trivia, thank you very much.