Nomura Bank Joins Blockchain Payments Consortium, Fnality

Summary:
• Fnality, the blockchain payments company, has attracted investment from Japan’s Nomura bank. Find out why and how it could impact the market.

Nomura, a leading Japanese bank, has invested in the London-based blockchain payments company Fnality. Nomura’s support positions Fnality to increase its profile in financial markets in the US, Europe, and Japan. However, Fnality did not reveal details of the deal. To facilitate the widespread usage of tokenized assets and marketplaces, a group of international institutions is working on a blockchain-based payment system.

Why institutions are angling for a share of Fnality

Fnality plans to build a blockchain-based wholesale payments system for the US dollar, Canadian dollar, Euro, British Pound, and Japanese yen. As the firm looks to expand beyond the United Kingdom, it will be pleased to be able to draw on Nomura’s wealth of knowledge in capital markets in Japan, the United States, and Europe. However, Nomura will be using Fnality’s technology and experience to maintain our global reputation for providing our clients and partners with exceptional service.

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is built into the Fnality ecosystem’s backend systems to facilitate the rollout of brand-new features, improve existing ones, and strengthen the system as a whole against failure. Essentially, it tokenizes fiat currency held at a central bank so that it may be used to settle transactions conducted over a distributed ledger technology. Since it has been officially acknowledged as a payments system by HM Treasury, its first currency, the British Pound, is likely to be released next month.

After successfully obtaining £50 million ($54m) in 2019, Fnality is presently in the midst of raising a Series B fundraising round. Nomura is the fourth Japanese bank to invest in Fnality. Mizuho, MUFG, and Sumitomo Mtisya Banking Corporation are the other leading Japanese institutions that have invested in the company. Fnality’s shareholders have already demonstrated the value of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in a number of proof-of-concepts, and now Nomura has joined the team. DLT allows for quick settlement of payments in capital markets.