Guernsey Press

World first for Guernsey's financial services sector

GUERNSEY has been revealed as the location for the first-ever commercial use of blockchain technology for the private equity market.

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Northern Trust, the island's largest fund administrator, has built the security rich blockchain with experts from IBM, working with the States of Guernsey and the Guernsey Financial Services Commission. It will be used to manage the administration of a private equity fund, domiciled in Guernsey, managed by Unigestion, a Switzerland-based asset manager with $20 billion in assets under management.

Economic Development president Deputy Peter Ferbrache said the blockchain launch represented an exciting opportunity for Guernsey.

'Blockchain technology will be increasingly used and further developed by financial services providers across the globe in the coming years, so for Guernsey to be home to the first commercial venture of its kind in the world is not only very exciting, but is also a testament to the sort of high value innovation government wants to encourage, to help drive economic growth and economic diversification,' he said.

Policy & Resources Committee president Deputy Gavin St Pier added: 'Guernsey has been at the forefront of innovation in the financial industry for many years. As a jurisdiction we continually monitor new technologies, support businesses in developing ground-breaking new ideas and provide a supportive environment where products can not only flourish but be first-to-market.

'The fact that this pioneering solution to the private equity market has been domiciled in Guernsey, and that Northern Trust has partnered with IBM to provide a secure cloud solution with a high level of cryptography to protect investor data, shows the commitment of Government to being at the cutting edge of financial services technology.'

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