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Israel has been known as a hotspot for blockchain innovation. Recently, the country lived up to this reputation by announcing a cutting-edge lending platform that is based on blockchain.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) announced the launch of a Central Blockchain Securities Lending Platform, the first of its kind in Israel, according to IsraelDefense. The groundbreaking financial platform will be powered was announced on Tuesday, July 28, 2020, but the actual launch is expected to happen by November 2, 2020.
At the moment, Israel has no central securities lending platform in place. Securities lending is done using inter-bank mechanisms, resulting in the lending market in the country not yet being fully exploited.
But the new blockchain-based lending platform is going to change that and transform Israel’s securities lending market. Once the new system is in place, it will enable direct lending for all major financial instruments.
In fact, it is seen as becoming a one-stop-shop for all securities lending transactions. With the system up and running, it could handle larger volumes of securities lending transactions and process them within shorter timeframes.
“The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is proud to present this first-of-a-kind lending pool, a safe, cutting-edge and state of the art platform,” TASE Executive Vice President and Head of Clearing Orly Grinfeld said. “The Blockchain technology will present a new level of safety for securities lending and will support growth for transactions based on this new platform.”
As a global financial innovation leader, Grinfeld said that TASE “strategically pursues the technological advancement of the capital market.” This is evident in the ground-breaking blockchain-based lending platform that it plans to launch later this year.
TASE released a press release last March and revealed that it performed initial testing of the project. During the testing, TASE members were given temporary access to the testing environment so they could try out some of its features and tweak their respective systems for compatibility.
There are many advantages to using blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) for the new securities trading platform. For example, it will be ultra-secure as records will be transparent and tamper-proof. The system will also support the use of smart contracts, allow direct peer-to-peer transactions, and reduce transaction costs.
