HSBC to move $20B in assets to blockchain

HSBC Holdings has announced of having used a blockchain distributed ledger technology (DLT) to digitize transaction records of private investments, enabling clients globally to access the details of their assets online in near real-time.

HSBC Holdings has planned to move $20 billion in assets that include equity, debt and real estate onto its new Digital Vault blockchain, a shift away from its current use of paper records to respond to client search requests.

HSBC is helping build the on-ramps and infrastructure needed to take blockchain DLT mainstream by getting investors to interact with this data on the blockchain through decentralized applications (dApps) supported by friendly user interfaces.

Digital Vault, developed by HSBC's Securities Services unit (HSS), is expected to eventually handle the custody of additional digital asset classes, enabling the bank to move more of the asset transaction lifecycle onto the ledger in the future.

According to researchers, HSBC is hardly going into the blockchain project blind. The bank has been involved with enterprise DLT firm R3 since at least 2015, so it has had time to research and test various blockchain ideas.

The use of Blockchain DLT will likely not only speed up HSBC's processes significantly and cut costs related to "middlemen" who engage in the time-consuming process of paper records research, but it will also boost interest and engagement by the bank's clients in securities trading.

Researchers find HSBC's deployment of blockchain digital custody platform is significant.