OpenFinance Network

The emergence of Bitcoin and its associated ecosystem of blockchains and alt-coins have been widely recognized as a generational disruptive force in the financial services industry. Equally disruptive is the underlying technology behind Bitcoin, commonly referred to as blockchain or distributed ledger technology, which has greater potential applications beyond just electronic currency. In particular, within financial markets, there is a wide range of benefits of blockchain technology in the securities trading, clearing & settlement process.

Modern financial markets are saddled with an antiquated clearing & settlement process that is often slow and cumbersome, and include multiple intermediaries and redundant data sets that need to be manually reconciled on a repeated basis to complete a single transaction. The core strengths of blockchain (shared ledger, immutability and security) bring the promise of reduced transaction costs and streamlined processes to the industry, which benefits both financial institutions and individual investors alike.

In the direct participation program (DPP) market, comprised of assets such as non-listed REITs, business development companies (BDCs), Regulation A+, Regulation CF and other crowdfunded assets, the inefficiencies and problems of an antiquated clearing and settlement process are even more pronounced. The lack of a standardized process and interoperability lead to a lengthy settlement process that averages 6-8 weeks to complete, an absurd amount of time by any measure. As more and more investors enter the DPP market (led by a revitalized interest in the alternatives sector) a more robust model must be put in place in order to meet the needs of its core customer base.

Open Finance Network, the leading trading platform in the $7.7T alternative asset market, has developed a framework to transform the trading, clearing & settlement process in the industry, leveraging distributed ledger technology to bring efficiency, transparency, and interoperability to a fragmented market. The framework contains a uniform protocol to provide standardization of assets and data within the industry. Moreover, this interoperability also applies between “traditional” alternative assets and the emerging “crypto” alternative asset class, creating a mechanism of tokenized trading to bridge the gap between off-chain and on-chain capital markets.