HSBC moves blockchain custody to Google cloud

HSBC announced it’s become the first financial institution to move software firm R3’s blockchain platform Corda Enterprise onto Google Cloud. The move is expected to cut client onboarding times from months to weeks and significantly reduce costs.

The bank currently uses R3’s Corda technology for Digital Vault, HSBC’s custody blockchain platform. HSBC is pursuing using blockchain to support the custody of future digital asset classes. Moving the Corda technology to Google Cloud gives the bank the option to move more of the transaction lifecycle on to the ledger in future, including issuing digital tokens instead of paper certificates.

The Digital Vault service, launched in November 2019, digitizes the transaction records of private placement assets including equity, debt and real estate. This enables global custody clients to access details of their private assets directly and in real-time instead of having to request a search of paper-based records. As a result, they can easily keep track of when they will receive the coupon on a private debt transaction or facilitate an audit of transaction records.

The Digital Vault is currently available in Asia and will be rolled out in other regions in due course. R3’s Corda platform enables businesses to transact directly and privately using smart contracts, reducing transaction and record-keeping costs and streamlining business operations.

Gaurav Aggarwal, head of Distributed Ledger Technology and Tokenisation, Markets & Securities Services at HSBC, said in a statement: “Being the first organization to move Corda technology to Google Cloud is a further sign of HSBC’s commitment to blockchain and cloud technologies. As well as cutting onboarding times and reducing costs, it will help us prepare for the future, in which the full transaction lifecycle could be stored on a distributed ledger.”

Read the full release

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