UK Finance has taken yet another step forward in developing and adopting its Regulated Liability Network (RLN) by naming R3 and Quant as new technology partners.
The two firms, both headquartered in London, will produce the technology prototype for the experimentation phase of the RLN, announced by UK Finance earlier this week.
UK Finance plans for the RLN to serve as a platform for British finance stakeholders to explore options for making payments and transactions and settle liabilities in an increasingly digital marketplace. The platform will perform a similar function to a sandbox in this regard.
“R3’s shared ledger technology is a great asset to this experimentation phase of work,” said Jana Mackintosh, Managing Director of Payment Innovation and Resilience at UK Finance.
“This project is being run to test hypotheses about the envisaged benefits of a UK RLN as a platform-for-innovation, and will be integral to futureproofing and progressing the UK’s financial infrastructure.
“Quant’s experience developing connectivity and smart contracts will prove invaluable to the UK RLN proof-of-concept as we look to simulate the integration of participants’ existing systems and explore payments programmability that enhances use cases and business flows.”
For its part, R3 will bring its shared ledger capability to the partnership using its tokenisation platform, Corda, and Digital Currency solution. Quant, meanwhile, will be using its programmability and interoperability across different forms of money via orchestration and API layer.
Gilbert Verdian, Quant Founder and CEO, said: “We live in a digital age, in which people and companies expect digital finance to operate globally at speed, with better security and at scale – but our legacy payments and financial infrastructure has not kept up.
“As the UK seeks a leadership position in financial markets, projects like the RLN highlight the central role that shared ledgers will play in this transition and offer a model we can extend to other markets.
“We’re delighted to be a key part of this important initiative which so closely aligns with our company vision: an empowered, interconnected world.”
The RLN experimentation phase was announced by UK Finance on Monday, focusing on three areas: customer and business benefits, technical feasibility and the legal framework.
Some of the UK’s biggest payments stakeholders are participating in the experimentation, including payments firms Visa and Mastercard and prominent banks Barclays, Citi, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander, Standard Chartered and Virgin Money. As well as R3 and Quant, the phase is also being supported by EY.
R3 Chief Commercial Officer Kate Karimson remarked: “The RLN initiative is bringing the industry together to work towards a shared goal – harnessing the benefits of tokenised finance in a manner that is regulated, orderly and interoperable.
“Being selected to lead and deliver the technology stream for the Experimentation Phase underpinning the UK RLN is a huge milestone for R3, and a testament to our technology when it comes to powering the digitalisation of real-world assets and currencies in complex and highly regulated industries.
“In the future, the RLN could provide a digital infrastructure that firms across the ecosystem can connect into and innovate further. We’re excited to be part of a truly pioneering initiative that will hopefully inform other future innovations.”
