Nasdaq and Depósito Central de Valores (DCV) announced an extension of their technology partnership, which will allow DCV to issue and settle digitized securities. Incorporating this service will differentiate DCV as a first mover in the tokenization of assets whilst providing its clients with one platform, based on a consolidated view and single access point across all asset classes.
The technology leverages digital asset capabilities developed by Nasdaq and is fully integrated with its Central Security Depository (CSD) solution, DCV Evolución. The new service will reduce manual processes, settlement times, and time to market for future enhancements and offerings.
“Market infrastructures are increasingly looking for ways to embrace tokenization, driven by an accelerating global trend towards leveraging existing securities systems and payment rails to service emerging asset classes,” said Roland Chai, executive vice president and head of Marketplace Technology at Nasdaq, in a statement. “Nasdaq’s technology allows providers to continue serving traditional securities, whilst capturing the many opportunities across digitized assets. The expansion of our partnership with DCV puts them at the forefront of this secular shift.”
DCV will use smart contracts to store information related to the underlying security and its ownership, thereby enabling them to automate asset servicing procedures such as managing interest payments or time-consuming legal processes.
“With a solid focus on the client, at DCV we recognize the need to move towards a modern capital market, with access to world-class standards and technology that allows agility and simplicity in the processes without neglecting the security that our business and our clients need. This is the vision that has mobilized us to advance in the DCV Digital project hand in hand with Nasdaq,” said Rodrigo Roblero, CEO at DCV, in a statement. “We are interested in being a relevant player in the world of tokenizing assets to deliver an applicable service that helps to improve the processes of issuing instruments.”
While DCV will initially launch digitized securities using a central private database, the technology is DLT-enabled to support the issuance, registry and settlement of tokenized assets on distributed ledgers as the broader ecosystem evolves. Nasdaq’s CSD technology is fully interoperable with other depositories and can be readily integrated into existing and future payment networks.
This announcement marks a significant expansion in Nasdaq’s partnership with DCV. Last year, the company replaced its legacy system with Nasdaq’s CSD platform which significantly enhanced the performance, speed, and scalability of its offering, increasing the processing speed of its operations over one hundred times faster. With these improvements, DCV has been able to enhance services across the Chilean financial ecosystem as well as more easily access international investors with standardized operations, messaging, and data infrastructure.