The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has announced that its alternative settlement platform based on blockchain technology called Project Ion has gone live in a ‘parallel production environment’.
Project Ion is now parallely processing an average of over 100,000 bilateral equity transactions per day, and almost 160,000 transactions on peak days, while the classic settlement system remains the authoritative record.
The platform leverages R3’s Corda as the underlying DLT and was developed in collaboration with global fintech and industry participants such as Barclays, BNY Mellon, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and several more.
“Project Ion provides a parallel book and infrastructure for limited bilateral transactions, with DTC’s existing systems remaining the authoritative source of transactions. With firms across the industry at different levels of maturity around DLT adoption, DTCC is building this platform to provide optionality and flexibility to clients,” said Michele Hillery, General Manager of Equity Clearing and DTC Settlement Service at DTCC.
Project Ion will ultimately provide a resilient, secure, and scalable alternative settlement service’, according to DTCC. The platform will also support a netted T+0 settlement cycle, as well as T+2 and T+1 extended settlement cycles.
DTCC is working with its clients on a phased expansion of the platform. In the future, the platform might include additional DTC activities and capabilities as well as the expansion of Project Ion to DTCC subsidiary National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC).
