Major payments firm SIA to launch DLT-based secondary credit marketplace

SIA, an Italian company specializing in e-payment services, is working on a blockchain-based system to enable secondary credit trading.

The upcoming platform will allow banks, funds and financial operators to negotiate secondary credit transactions via blockchain, SIA announced on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for SIA told Cointelegraph that the company plans to pilot the platform in the second quarter, while the full-scale launch is expected in the second half of the year.

SIA’s new credit trading platform is being developed in collaboration with fintech startup WizKey. The Milan-based firm is building financial solutions with a focus on structured finance products and the management and transfer of credit.

By implementing blockchain, SIA intends to provide financial operators with instant and secure access to credit portfolios as well as the underlying data and documentation. "The certification of information and workflow via blockchain provides to all secondary market purchasers the trust necessary to know that the data is consistent and certified, increasing the speed of transaction and the liquidity of the market," a representative of SIA said.

WizKey CEO and founder Marco Pagani said that the blockchain-powered project aims to create a “transparent, liquid and efficient secondary market for NPLs thus benefiting the entire country system.” Daniele Savarè, director of innovation and business solutions at SIA, also noted that the project will be developed in a standardized way in line with European regulations.

SIA has worked with blockchain-related developments previously. In June 2020, SIA completed a project on cross-chain interoperability, targeting services for banks and financial institutions.