Note from the CEO: We have said this before, FintekNews tries to focus on US fintech BUT every so often the world has new ‘stuff’ to offer. Two London start-ups have collaborated on a platform to cut costs AND settlement times in the forex market. Huge! $5 trillion-a-day market! Instant settlement! Long overdue and just AWESOME! That’s fintech at its finest.

"Two London-based start-ups have joined forces on a platform to process currency trades with blockchain technology, in an effort to cut settlement times and costs in the $5 trillion-a-day global foreign exchange market.

Cobalt DL, fronted by former Citi and Deutsche Bank currencies supremo Andy Coyne and backed by 15 major foreign exchange market participants, is partnering with fellow London-based firm SETL, which says it can settle transactions via the blockchain almost instantly.

Blockchain, which originated in the digital currency Bitcoin, works as a web-based transaction-processing and settlement system. It creates a “golden record” of any given set of data that is automatically replicated for all parties in a secure network, eliminating any need for third-party verification.

In contrast, the current foreign exchange (FX) market requires multiple records to be created for buyer, seller, broker, clearer and third parties in currency trades, and then reconciliation across multiple systems."

Read Full Article at Fortune.com