Blockchain Database Platform Developed By Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange

Blockchain, News | September 6, 2018 By:

The Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST) has developed a blockchain platform that will store details of new customers and share documents on a decentralized network.

BIST is the sole exchange entity of Turkey combining the former Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE), the Istanbul Gold Exchange and the Derivatives Exchange of Turkey under one umbrella. As of the end of 2017, BIST’s total assets reached TL 11.9 billion (1.8B USD) and total equity reached TL 1.56 billion (236M USD).

The new blockchain platform, developed in-house and designed around know your customer (KYC) policies, will manage the addition of new customers, manage documents, and edit information.

“With the blockchain-based project, which was prepared by the Borsa Istanbul IT team, information in the customer database of Borsa Istanbul, Istanbul Clearing, Settlement and Custody Bank [Takasbank], and the Central Securities Depository of Turkey’s [MKK] has been synchronized,” BIST  said in a statement.

BIST said that editing of customer information and document management will be facilitated on the blockchain network to avoid possible manipulations or errors in the information entered. It added that the platform’s technical substructure also enables the system to carry out large number of operations and can be used in other projects.

Some of world’s biggest stock exchanges have turned to blockchain for a number of applications, including the Australian Securities Exchange, Singapore Exchange, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. However, the majority of stock-infrastructure suppliers globally are still in the very early stages of exploring benefits of the technology.

According to a study commissioned by Nasdaq and carried out by financial and technology research firm Celent, only 5 percent of firms polled have deployed some form of distributed ledger technology (DLT), while 20 percent have “no plans” to develop on or implement the technology. While 70 percent said they are working on pilot projects, another 5 percent said they lacked the expertise to do so.