Linklaters are the advisors to Clearmatics, the blockchain specialists, and a consortium of banks* on the legal mechanics behind the Utility Settlement Coin (USC), an asset-backed digital cash instrument on blockchain for use within global institutional financial markets.

Once deployed, the USC will transform and simplify the clearing and settlement process between financial institutions resulting in exceptional efficiency gains and the reduction of settlement, counterparty, credit and market risk. The project is currently in Phase 3 of its development and is expected to go live late next year.

Paul Lewis, Linklaters, says: “Technological developments are changing the way that financial institutions do business together.  With the development of a collateralised digital currency, the complexity and time taken to settle and clear trades could be significantly reduced which will have a material impact on cross-institution transactions.”

*Consortium of banks consists of: Banco Santander, The Bank of New York Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, MUFG, NEX, State Street and UBS.