|
|
In a bid to leverage blockchain technology innovations, Asian banking giant Nomura has made several recent moves, including investing in the Fnality Payments Firm, based in London.
According to theblock.co, Nomura has also raised money for a crypto venture fund, and has noted the evolution of DeFi as an important development.
“The transformation of financial services powered by blockchain technology is clearly accelerating, and we believe Fnality is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the significant opportunities brought by this evolution,” Nomura’s Angel Issa said about the Fnality announcement.
Issa is global head of Nomura’s corporate development and strategic investments.
Formed in London in 2019, Fnality set out to create a payments system based on tokenized currencies including the U.S. and Canadian dollars, the Euro, British Pound, and Japanese Yen.
Nasdaq, BNY Mellon, Barclays, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, Lloyds Banking Group, Mizuho Financial Group, State Street Corporation and UBS are among Fnality’s current backers, theblock.co noted.
Their system is not operational yet, and there have been regulatory hurdles regarding asset tokenization via central banks.
According to their website:
“The five central banks whose currencies are in the initial scope are aware of our work. We completed our research phase in 2019, and as of now we are working with the Central Banks on the account opening formalities that they require of a new payment system.
“In April 2021 Fnality made a formal application for an account at the Bank of England. We will be ready to go live with this account in Q1 2023.
“We continue our formal engagements with other central banks with anticipated account openings from early 2023.”
Still, the announcement by Nomura regarding Fnality is significant.
Nomura is an Asian financial giant with over 65 trillion in client assets under management.
They offer various wholesale and retail banking and investment services, and have some 120 retail locations throughout Japan.