Former State Street Blockchain Lead Launches Post-Trade Startup

State Street’s former blockchain lead for Europe and the Middle East has launched a new startup focused on using blockchain technology to “redesign” the securities services industry.

Called RISE Financial Technologies, the startup is seeking to provide distributed ledger technology that provides data integrity and immutability to financial trades in a way that is in harmony with existing bank processes. Advisors for the project include former Chairman of the European Banking Federation (EBF) Ruud Sleenhoff.

Led by CEO Thorsten Peisl, RISE is said to be actively testing its solutions with financial institutions including banks, custodians and central securities depositories (CSDs). Peisl's departure from his previous company was made public in January.

Given the recent concerns about confidentiality within distributed ledger environments, RISE said it has built its technology so that different parties have different levels of access to information stored with its ledger tech.

The company said:

In statements, Peisl said that he foresees distributed ledgers changing the way post-trade processes work, but that in order to do so, the technology needs to be custom built for the industry’s use.

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