By
Darya Rudz
October 11th, 2023
With blockchain solutions gaining a global traction, Israel’s Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) has launched a blockchain platform that will enhance peer-to-peer Securities Lending.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) has announced an innovative financial technology solution with the launch of a Central Blockchain Securities Lending Platform, the first-ever in Israel. The exchange said it started testing the platform since March and is going to launch it in November. With the Central Blockchain Securities Lending Platform, TASE will be able to provide a single national market where Israeli institutions can lend securities directly to one another.
Drawing from the peer-to-peer operational model of blockchain technology, the TASE Securities Lending platform will offer enhanced lending services with an escrow service which will also help cut costs and enhance security. The platform is centralized and uses Decentralized Ledger Technology (DLT) Hyperledger Sawtooth. It will help facilitate a secure sharing of data between organizations which will help cut back or eliminate the stress of reconciliation which will promote lending initiatives.
Currently, there are no such platforms in the Israeli market and previous securities lending services are executed using inter-bank mechanisms within, and if necessary outside, banking group limits. The new blockchain solution will help offer a worthy alternative that will help serve the numerous economic agents around the country.
Orly Grinfeld, EVP and Head of Clearing at TASE said in a statement:
“The Blockchain technology will present a new level of safety for securities lending and will support growth for transactions based on this new platform, TASE is a global financial innovation leader, and strategically pursues the technological advancement of the capital market”.
Israeli’s TASE Comes Up With Great Blockchain Initiatives
The Israeli ecosystem has shown positive growth in the blockchain ecosystem in recent times. Back in 2017, Israel’s Largest Bank Hapoalim teamed up with software giant Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) to develop a platform to create digital bank guarantees based on blockchain technology, a leading global software platform for digital assets. The cooperation made Bank Hapoalim the first bank in Israel to explore blockchain potential in the area of financial market infrastructures.
In a bid to stir a rapid growth of initiatives in the country, the country’s crypto experts held a conference back in 2018 to chart the course for a blockchain takeover, a move that has long been yielding positive dividends. Among the most notable trends in the blockchain ecosystem emanating include the development of a blockchain network that eliminates the need for miners by COTI, an Israeli based blockchain platform for optimized decentralized payment. In the course of its blockchain solution evolution, Israel as a state has made some strategic partnerships to enhance technological transfers, which has been pitched to yield more innovative systems in the near future.