The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) has launched its central blockchain securities lending platform in Israel and it is expected to go live on 2 November 2020. This will enable capital market players direct lending among all the major financial instruments.
According to TASE, the Blockchain Securities Lending (BSL) platform aims to address the fragmented, inefficient and opaque nature of the market in Israel.
The platform will function as a one-stop-shop for all securities lending activities, permitting access to larger securities volumes within shorter timeframes, even operating in shorter-term positions.
Uri Shavit, chief information officer for TASE, says BSL will provide a distributed service available to all Israeli market participants in order to increase market volumes and make securities lending available for more players.
Earlier this year, TASE partnered with to put the finishing touches on its distributed ledger technology (DLT) securities lending project ahead of the platform鈥檚 launch.
In March, TASE members were given access to an initial testing environment, in order to test lending transactions in the new platform and adapt their systems in preparation for the production phase.
There is currently no central securities lending platform in the Israeli market.
Securities lending is at present executed using inter-bank mechanisms within, and if necessary outside, banking group limits. As a result, the market has not been fully exploited to satisfy the potential needs of economic agents.
The use of DLT as the basis of this new trading platform will harness some of the blockchain鈥檚 primary advantages and features, such as direct peer-to-peer transactions, smart contracts, and enhanced security through immutability, says TASE.
All of these are expected to benefit the exchange, its custodians and their clients by reducing costs, increasing security and enabling the market to exploit its full potential.
Orly Grinfeld, EVP and head of clearing at TASE, says: 鈥淭he Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is proud to present this first-of-a-kind lending pool, a safe, cutting-edge and state-of-the-art platform.
鈥淭he 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.鈥�
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