SGX to test blockchain e-voting in Asia Pacific

It aims to simplify the management of shareholder meetings.

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) will test blockchain e-voting in the Asia Pacific using distributed ledger technology with financial messaging service SWIFT and SLIB.

According to an announcement, SWIFT’s proof of concept (PoC) will explore whether DLT can help simplify the currently inefficient management of shareholder meetings and the associated voting processes that are often time-consuming and resource intensive.

The PoC, which will run during the first half of 2019, is designed to test the deployment of a voting solution in collaboration with issuers and a Central Securities Depository (CSD), where the information is stored and managed on a permissioned private blockchain, as well as demonstrate the viability of hybrid solutions based on ISO 20022, combining messaging and DLT to foster interoperability and avoid market fragmentation.

“SWIFT will facilitate the PoC in its DLT sandbox testing environment with Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank joining as participants, and DBS and SGX joining as both participants and issuers,” SWIFT explained. “The participants will reuse the SWIFT network and their existing SWIFT infrastructure and interfaces to access, test and validate the applicability of DLT.”