London and Sunnyvale, Calif., February 26, 2021 — HSBC has become the first financial institution to move software firm R3’s blockchain platform Corda Enterprise on to Google Cloud. The move will cut client onboarding times from months to weeks, improving the client experience and significantly reducing costs.
The bank currently uses R3’s Corda technology for Digital Vault, HSBC’s custody blockchain platform.
HSBC is pursuing using blockchain to support the custody of future digital asset classes. Moving the Corda technology to Google Cloud gives the bank the option to move more of the transaction lifecycle on to the ledger in future, including issuing digital tokens instead of paper certificates.
The Digital Vault service, launched in November 2019, digitises the transaction records of private placement assets including equity, debt and real estate. This enables global custody clients to access details of their private assets directly and in real-time instead of having to request a search of paper-based records. As a result, they can easily keep track of when they will receive the coupon on a private debt transaction or facilitate an audit of transaction records. The Digital Vault is currently available in Asia and will be rolled out in other regions in due course.
R3’s Corda platform enables businesses to transact directly and privately using smart contracts, reducing transaction and record-keeping costs and streamlining business operations.
Gaurav Aggarwal, Head of Distributed Ledger Technology and Tokenisation, Markets & Securities Services, HSBC, said: “Being the first organisation to move Corda technology to Google Cloud is a further sign of HSBC’s commitment to blockchain and cloud technologies. As well as cutting onboarding times and reducing costs, it will help us prepare for the future, in which the full transaction lifecycle could be stored on a distributed ledger.”
Cathy Minter, Chief Revenue Officer at R3, said: “Blockchain’s potential in supporting the custody of future digital asset classes is immense, and we have already seen this in practice with HSBC’s Digital Vault service. As HSBC moves Corda onto Google Cloud, clients will benefit from faster onboarding times and reduced costs. Corda was built with the highest standards of privacy and security in mind. The platform is ideally suited to empower HSBC’s global custody clients to access details of their private assets securely, and in real time.”
Derek White, Vice President, Global Financial Services, Google Cloud, said: “As HSBC prepares for the future of banking, we are proud to provide the speed, scale and security of the best of cloud technology to connect consumers, businesses and ecosystems in new innovations.”
Media contacts
HSBC
London
Don Hunter
07387 243238
don.hunter@hsbc.com
R3
r3@chatsworthcommunications.com
Google Cloud
Jane Khodos
press@google.com
About HSBC
HSBC Holdings plc, the parent company of HSBC, is headquartered in London.HSBC serves customers worldwide from offices in 64 countries and territories in itsgeographical regions: Europe, Asia, North America, Latin America, and Middle Eastand North Africa. With assets of US$2,984bn at 31 December 2020, HSBC is one ofthe world’s largest banking and financial services organisations.
About R3
R3 is an enterprise software firm that is pioneering digital industry transformation.Developed in collaboration with our ecosystem, our enterprise blockchain platformCorda is transforming entire industries by digitalizing the processes and systems thatfirms rely on to connect and transact with each other. By leveraging ConfidentialComputing and Intel SGX, Conclave is a new platform that simplifies thedevelopment of applications that provide transparency into how data is collected andprocessed. R3 customers and partners also have access to a network of leadingsystems integrators, cloud providers, technology firms, software vendors, corporatesand banks. To ensure our customers derive the greatest value from their investment,we provide services and support to shorten time-to-market, as well as guidance onimplementation, integration and building ecosystems. Learn more at www.r3.comand www.conclave.net.
About Google Cloud
Google Cloud provides organizations with leading infrastructure, platform capabilities and industry solutions. We deliver enterprise-grade cloud solutions that leverage Google’s cutting-edge technology to help companies operate more efficiently and adapt to changing needs, giving customers a foundation for the future. Customers in more than 150 countries turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to solve their most critical business problems.