Brazil’s BM&FBOVESPA is the first securities exchange to join R3, a global consortium of financial institutions that is exploring the possible uses of blockchain technology in mainstream financial markets.
The exchange announced on Tuesday it is joining the global effort to design and apply technology modelled on the distributed ledger concept, which underlies virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, to global financial markets.
New York-based R3 brings together financial industry veterans, technologists and blockchain and cryptocurrency experts to work on research, experimentation, design and engineering to help develop the technology to meet the industry’s requirements and to work with existing systems.
“BM&FBOVESPA is researching blockchain-based solutions from a business and IT perspective, and we are pleased to join R3 in the drive to innovate in capital markets,” says Jochen Mielke de Lima, managing director IT at BM&FBOVESPA, in a statement. “Distributed ledgers hold a promise for process efficiencies and we want to work with our customers to evaluate real use cases.”
David Rutter, CEO of R3, adds, “Distributed and shared ledger technology can transform the way in which FMIs (financial market infrastructures) such as BM&FBOVESPA issue, record and transfer assets, enabling transactions and reference data to be visible to all relevant parties on the ledger. This can cut effort and costs dramatically. We are pleased to welcome BM&FBOVESPA to our growing network of consortium members in Brazil.”