Nadine Chakar, head of State Street Digital, said:
State Street Digital is incredibly pleased to have collaborated with both Vanguard and Symbiont on this monumental industry initiative to digitize the margining process around collateralized foreign exchange forward contracts that will reduce our customers operational challenges through process automation and state of the art technologies. Our newly launched division, State Street Digital, was created to help drive innovation and address the industry’s digital transformation.
Warren Pennington, head of Vanguard’s Investment Management FinTech Strategies Group, added:
We’re excited to partner with State Street and Symbiont on the world’s first ever digital collateral-linked currency forward trade margining process. Leveraging cutting-edge distributed ledger technology represents a giant leap forward in foreign exchange market structure by reducing counterparty risk, automating previously manual processes, and mitigating potential disputes through standardized calculation processes. The lower risk and increased speed will lead to lower costs and improved outcomes for investors.
Mark Smith, CEO, Symbiont, commented:
Our market still manages risk on an overnight basis and lacks an efficient, real-time common infrastructure for valuing trades, calculating margin calls, and moving assets between counterparties as defined by the legal agreements (ISDA/CSA). That hampers the credit both firms are willing to extend to each other and the resulting dealing price. Our solution solves for that by allowing both counterparties to transact and participate in greater size (full amount) and activity based purely on best execution, without fear of increased credit exposure.
