India-headquartered Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced that two of its BaNCS software customers in Africa — Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS), the Central Securities Depository (CSD) of Nigeria, and South Africa-based Standard Bank — have completed a pilot using the Quartz blockchain technology for cross-border corporate action information exchange using the BaNCS Network.
This could potentially seed an innovative pan-African financial ecosystem for cross-border information exchange and transaction settlement, according to a company statement.
During the pilot, a blockchain ecosystem consisting of the TCS BaNCS Network, with blockchain nodes for CSCS Nigeria and Standard Bank South Africa, was set up using TCS’ Quartz in a coexistent architecture. Corporate action information was exchanged on a real-time basis for a wide range of equities and fixed income instruments over the BaNCS Network.
To demonstrate the ability to extend the ecosystem to other stakeholders, additional blockchain nodes were configured for Registrars on the BaNCS Network. This successful pilot for information exchange using the BaNCS Network, Quartz and TCS BaNCS solutions has the potential to extend its usage for transfers and settlement.