on the crypto
Another large bank has decided to support a cryptocurrency custody offer. ING, based in the Netherlands, spoke publicly for the first time this week about its recent move towards digital asset services.
The announcement of the ING Bank
Speaking at the Singapore Fintech Festival on Tuesday, ING blockchain chief Herve Francois discussed work done so far with Pyctor, a custody and post-trade infrastructure for crypto assets included in this year's cohort of Financial's regulatory sandbox. Conduct Authority in the UK.
Pyctor, based on a collaboration involving ING, ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas Securities Services, Citibank, Invesco, Société Générale, State Street, UBS and others, is designed to make banks feel comfortable managing cryptocurrencies.
ING had already expressed the urgency for banks to explore the opportunities of the crypto world last year, shortly after the announcement of Facebook's Libra (recently renamed Diem) project (Facebook shares - FB ticker).
ING studies an approach to cryptocurrencies based on security and decentralization
The project includes security layers such as multi-party computing (MPC) technology and hardware security module (HSM), and is also decentralized, according to Francois. “The Pyctor network of financial institutions increases the security of stored digital assets and removes single points of failure.
These principles were key design choices when studying relevant pilot projects with our partners, ”he said. ING also focuses on cryptocurrency from an anti-money laundering (AML) perspective as a founding member of the Travel Rule Protocol (TRP), which includes Standard Chartered and Fidelity Digital Assets.
The fundamental role of Pyctor in the crypto initiatives of the institutions
Before joining the FCA sandbox in July 2020, Pyctor conducted a first pilot project together with companies such as DLA, Piper, R3 Tata Consultancy Services and Securosys. This involved two asset managers served by their respective custodian, who transferred a token to the Ethereum testnet, thus creating a digital native product issued as part of Société Générale's digital assets initiative, Forge.
The transaction validated Pyctor's decentralized operating model of safe custody and asset transfer, Francois said. In the comfort of the FCA regulatory sandbox, Pyctor conducted another pilot project regarding its token issuance and management operating model.
In this case, a smart contract that managed the issuance of tokens on the Ethereum blockchain was managed by Pyctor's private network, Francois explained. “It was all done in a decentralized way using MPC, and the newly issued tokens were safeguarded by a custodian of the Pyctor ecosystem,” said François. "The transaction was processed on the Ethereum mainnet, validating the hypotheses on the feasibility of using public blockchains."
