The US’ central securities depository DTCC now has its “Project Ion” up and running, settling almost 160,000 bilateral equity trades there on peak days. R3 Corda was picked as its DLT platform.
The authoritative settlement record is still produced by the classic settlement systems at DTCC subsidiary DTC, The Depository Trust Company. Yet, with the parallel processing on the DLT platform, “DTCC is working closely with its clients on a phased expansion of the platform,” states a Monday press release.
The project is designed to be able to host a “netted T+0” settlement cycle, as well as T+2, T+1 or extended cycles where appropriate.
According to DTCC, the parallel volumes on the Project Ion platform currently average over 100,000 bilateral transactions per day, with peaks so far at near 160,000.
“The goal of Project Ion is to ultimately provide a resilient, secure and scalable alternative settlement service to clients, with the option to leverage DLT for those firms who wish to take advantage of the emerging technology. DTCC partnered with leading enterprise technology provider R3 to develop and launch the Project Ion platform leveraging R3’s Corda DLT software,” writes the company.
Among the market participant and technology provider firms involved in the project, DTCC lists Apex Clearing Corp., Barclays, BNY Mellon, Charles Schwab Corp., Citadel Securities, Citi, Credit Suisse Securities USA LLC, Fidelity Investments, Fnality International, Goldman Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley & Co, Raymond James Financial Inc., Robinhood Securities LLC, State Street Corporation, and Virtu Financial Inc.