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(Alliance News) - London Stock Exchange Group PLC is planning to launch a new blockchain-based digital markets business, according to the Financial Times.
With the planned move, the company aims to become "the first major exchange to offer extensive trading of traditional financial assets on the blockchain technology known for powering cryptocurrency," according to the report.
LSE Group is considering using a separate legal entity for the digital markets business to be running within the next year, subject to regulatory approval, the FT said.
The company is reportedly already in talks with regulators in multiple jurisdictions, as well as the government and Treasury in the UK.
Murray Roos, head of capital markets at the LSE Group, told the FT that the company had been examining the potential for a blockchain-powered trading venue for about a year.
The company has been waiting to proceed until it was sure that the public blockchain technology was "good enough" and that investors were ready, he said.
The company now has decided to take the plans forward, and has asked Julia Hoggett, head of the London Stock Exchange unit, to lead the project, according to the FT.
According to Roos, the exchange was not building "anything around cryptoassets," but wants to use the technology that underpins popular tokens such as bitcoin to make the processes of buying, selling and holding traditional assets more efficient.
He added that "the idea is to use digital technology to make a process that is slicker, smoother, cheaper and more transparent ... and to have it regulated."
"The ultimate goal," Roos said, "is a global platform that allows participants in all jurisdictions to be able to interact with people in other jurisdictions completely abiding by rules, laws and regulations, potentially multiple jurisdictions simultaneously, which is something that hasn't been possible in an analogue world."
source: dpa
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