Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Launches Blockchain-Based Securities Lending Platform

The Floor, Tel Aviv’s fintech hub, has announced the release of a new platform in partnership with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Accenture, Hyperledger and Intel, according to an official press release.

The platform is called Blockchain Securities Lending, and as the name implies, will utilise blockchain technology for securities lending. It will be the first such platform in the country.

Securities lending refers to the act of lending financial derivatives to investors and firms. The benefits of blockchain technology here are its peer-to-peer structure, smart contract capability, and security.

The idea was born during a hackathon in March 2017. It is being built on Hyperledger Sawtooth, which is a modular platform that supports distributed ledgers. Hyperledger Sawtooth was designed by a cross-industry collaborative project called Hyperledger that includes 231 organisations from 25 different countries. Accenture, a management consultancy that first partnered with The Floor in June 2016, is providing consultancy services for the project.

Ittai Ben-Zeev, CEO of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, said: “The Tel Aviv Stock exchange is pleased to present this first of a kind project…blockchain technology will present a new level of safety for securities lending and will support growth for transactions based on this new platform.”

Gil Devora, co-founder of The Floor, said: “In the future, this platform and its cutting-edge technology will be offered to global custodians, stock exchanges and other asset management firms looking to deploy a robust and operational system for securities lending or other asset classes….we believe this is just the beginning of using this platform for multiple use cases.”

Jacob Benadiba, Accenture Country Managing Director for Israel, said: “Blockchain technology is poised to bring sweeping innovation to the global capital markets infrastructure, and this project shows how rapidly this technology is taking hold around the world.”

Rick Echevarria, Vice President of Software and Services Group at Intel, said: “Intel believes blockchain can transform business processes, and Intel SGX technology is an important enabling technology for blockhain solutions. Today’s announcement is exciting as it demonstrates the progress made by TASE, The Floor and Accenture in developing a solution that accelerates blockchain adoption and, more importantly, brings value to the financial services market in Israel.”