Today EquiLend announced that its DLT platform for securities lending, 1Source, has entered pilot mode. The solution’s scheduled launch date is Q3 2024. Equilend is the major technology provider to the securities lending sector and is backed by several large banks, including JP Morgan, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, State Street and UBS.
EquiLend already provides a record of trades. However, currently each counterparty copies the details to internal systems. The challenge arises when there are subsequent modifications, such as rate changes and the separate records are no longer in sync. 1Source aims to provide a shared DLT ledger of agreed transactions and changes, thereby removing the need for manual reconciliations.
An independent consultant estimated this could save the industry as much as $100 million in costs.
1Source could also help significantly with the shortened settlement times that kick in Q2 2024. But 1Source is not targeted to be ready for that.
“Our goal was to solve critical industry pain points and to empower businesses to continue to trade accurately and efficiently,” said Ken DeGiglio, Chief Information Officer of EquiLend. “The successful launch of the EquiLend 1Source pilot shows that the market shares that vision, and that a new, modernized and efficient chapter has begun for the securities finance industry.”
1Source is based on Digital Asset’s DAML technology. EquiLend is also a member of the Canton Network to interoperate with other DAML-based solutions. We previously explored 1Source in more depth.
