CSDs to Collaborate in Distributed Ledger First

Two central securities depositories (CSDs) have agreed to collaborate on distributed ledger initiatives in a first-of-its-kind agreement globally.

Announced today, Strate and the National Securities Depository (NSD), the CSDs of South Africa and Russia, respectively, have agreed to collaborate to develop new solutions with the technology, starting first by focusing on extending NSD's past explorations into proxy voting.

As part of the agreement, Strate and NSD say they will share information related to the standardization and regulation of blockchain and distributed ledgers.

In statements, Eddie Astanin, chairman of the NSD’s executive board, spoke broadly about how he believes distributed ledgers could come to impact securities settlement and custody.

Astanin said:

"I think that post-trading may become the starting point of transition of the distributed ledger technology and blockchain from theory to practice."

The statements follow an April announcement from the NSD that it would trial a blockchain prototype for proxy voting, a move that positioned it as one of the more progressive firms globally on the tech.

Other initiatives have so far been announced by the DTCC in the US and the Korea Securities Depository in South Korea.

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