Sky News in the UK is reporting that a former deputy governor of the Bank of England and ex-head of the media regulator are joining a financial technology start-up SETL – which claims it will revolutionise the global payments industry.
According to the UK news outlet, SETL will announce in the next few days that it has recruited former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England Rachel Lomax as well as former Chief Executive of Ofcom, former Senior Policy Advisor to Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and Controller of Corporate Strategy at the BBC, Ed Richards to join it’s board.
They will join SETL’s chairman Sir David Walker, the former chairman of Barclays who also served as an executive director at the Bank of England.
Their appointments will add credibility to a company which has already demonstrated that it can process in excess of one billion transactions daily.
Sources said that SETL had also raised more than £20m from a consortium of shareholders, which include SETL’s users, although their identities are unlikely to be disclosed.
SETL’s founder has suggested that Blockchain would transform global payments in the same way that containers had revolutionised shipping.
Some of the world’s biggest banks and most prominent financiers are now committing significant resources to exploring the opportunities presented by Blockchain.
Walker said when his appointment was announced last December:
“By simplifying the process of payments and settlement SETL should be able to deliver significant operational efficiencies which will benefit all market participants and, most importantly, reduce costs borne by savers and investors.”
In June, SETL launched its Blockchain-powered OpenCSD platform.
“The time has come to stop talking about the characteristics of Blockchain and to start realising its promise. Our OpenCSD platform will revolutionise the way securities depositories and payments systems are organised. A group of participants can now permission a working Blockchain platform in a matter of minutes and jointly record and settle changes in ownership. This will help bring competition into a segment of financial markets which has thus far been dominated by quasi-monopolistic incumbents,” said Peter Randall, CEO of SETL.
