Global investment bank Goldman Sachs and French universal bank BNP Paribas have reportedly led a new funding round for Fnality, a blockchain-based wholesale payments company backed by Nomura Group.
Fnality raises £77.7 million ($95.09 million) in second round of funding, Reuters reports report On November 13, in addition to Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas, settlement institutions such as Euroclear and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation also participated in the fundraising event. Other investors include Nomura, an existing investor in global exchange-traded fund companies WisdomTree and Fnality.
First-round backers also include Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Commerzbank, ING, Lloyds Banking Group, Nasdaq Ventures, State Street , Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and UBS Group AG. According to previous reports, UBS and other global banks invested 55 million pounds ($63.2 million) in Fnality in June 2019 with the aim of launching a blockchain-based trade settlement platform.
Fnality reportedly said the new funds will be used to build a 24/7 global liquidity management network for new digital payment models in wholesale financial markets and emerging tokenized asset markets. The financing also lays the foundation for the first launch of the Sterling Final Payments System starting in 2023, pending Bank of England approval.
Mathew McDermott, global head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs, said Fnality’s blockchain technology applications allow institutions to use central bank funds in a number of potential use cases. These include “instant, cross-border, cross-currency payments, collateral liquidity and secure transactions,” he noted.
related: Swiss bank UBS launches tokenized money market fund in Ethereum
Founded in 2019, Fnality is a UBS-led blockchain project that aims to build digital versions of major currencies for wholesale payments and transactions involving digital securities. The company initially launched exclusively under the Utility Settlement Coin (USC) project, which aims to tokenize fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar or euro on an Ethereum-based blockchain.
Other global banks such as multinational banking company JPMorgan Chase have also been actively exploring blockchain and tokenization. In early November, JPMorgan launched a new programmable payments feature on its JPM Coin platform, targeting institutional investors.
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