Investment Bank Affiliate Sells Shares for Cash in Blockchain Test

An affiliate of French corporate investment bank Natixis has sold shares to investors through a blockchain platform backed by the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

The affiliate, Natixis Asset Management, sold an undisclosed number of shares through FundsDLT, a platform developed in partnership between between Fundsquare, a subsidiary of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, professional services firm KPMG's Luxembourg office, and software provider InTech.

The platform, the firms involved announced this week, utilizes the tech to facilitate and streamline the selling of securities. The process involves a mobile app through which prospective buyers place a share subscription order. Those orders are transfered to the FundsDLT platform, with orders settling via its internal blockchain. Nodes, according to the firms involved, are operated by Natixis and other parties to the transactions.

Matthieu Duncan, Natixis' CEO, said in a statement:

"Natixis Asset Management is delighted to have contributed to this pioneering first blockchain enabled trade via the FundsDLT platform. We believe the potential for blockchain technology to enhance distribution mechanisms in the asset management industry is very significant."

The project is perhaps the most notable to date for Natixis, which is a member of the R3 distributed ledger consortium. Natixis was among the group of member-banks to back R3's $107m funding round earlier this year.

The investment bank has also taken part in a number of private-sector blockchain trials, including one focused on the oil trade and another more broadly on shipping finance.

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