Northern Trust Hands Off Blockchain Solution to Fintech Firm

Northern Trust has handed over its blockchain platform to fintech firm Broadridge Financial Solutions, according to a press release on June 26.

The Chicago-based asset management firm Northern Trust has handed over its blockchain-based private equity (PE) management solution to Broadridge for further improvement.

The platform purports to streamline and automate certain tasks, such as middle office functions. The PE blockchain solution will initially roll out “to all PE funds domiciled in Guernsey and Delaware, including those administered by Northern Trust.”

Pete Cherecwich, President of Corporate & Institutional Services at Northern Trust commented on the hand-off, saying:

“For the benefit of our clients and the industry as a whole, it’s now time to hand over the reins to a technology provider with deep fintech expertise. Broadridge’s administrator-agnostic position, coupled with its DLT (distributed ledger technology) leadership and global footprint, make them an ideal firm to open up this innovative technology to the marketplace, paving the way for the digitization of the asset class.”

Broadridge partnered with the bank Santander last year to facilitate investor voting via proxies using blockchain technology. 

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Northern Trust partnered with Big Four consulting and auditing network PwC to provide a repository of audit data on its private equity blockchain to interested parties.

The solution was reportedly built using the open source Hyperledger Fabric framework as well as the IBM Blockchain to provide security and scalability.