Nigeria’s CSCS, Standard Bank on board as Tata completes innovative pilot for cross border data exchange in Africa

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation has announced that it has successfully completed a pilot using the quartz blockchain technology for cross-border corporate action information exchange on the BaNCS Network.

The pilot process was carried through two of TCS BaNCS customers in Africa: Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc., the Central Securities Depository (CSD) of Nigeria, and South Africa based Standard Bank, a leading custodian.

The action thus potentially births an innovative pan-African financial ecosystem for cross-border information exchange and transaction settlement.

“Blockchain represents a unique opportunity for early adopters interested in transforming their businesses and industries. CSCS is excited to have worked together with TCS BaNCS and Quartz Solutions on this innovative pilot that has the potential of generating efficiencies in the financial markets.

“This is a significant step towards our vision of being the globally respected and leading central securities depository in the region. Our next steps are to continue exploring ways in which CSCS could harness the capabilities of Blockchain technology in other areas of our core operations and extend it to other market participants in the region,” said Haruna Jalo-Waziri, CEO, CSCS Plc, Nigeria.

The CSCS in a statement explained that leveraging on the power of Blockchain, corporate action information was exchanged on a real-time basis for a wide range of equities and fixed income instruments over the BaNCS Network.

In a bid to demonstrate the ability to extend the ecosystem to other stakeholders, additional Blockchain nodes were configured for registrars on the BaNCS Network, it added.

“This successful pilot for information exchange using the BaNCS Network, Quartz and TCS BaNCS solutions has the potential to extend its usage for transfers and settlement,” the statement disclosed.

Speaking on the experience of Standard Bank, Charl Bruyns, head investor services and financial institutions, Standard Bank Group said “Standard Bank’s digital strategy focuses on leveraging innovative technology, driving Africa’s growth by building the continent’s digital economy.

As Africa’s largest investor services provider we are also committed to driving the development of African capital markets. As such, we are excited to be part of a pilot which has conclusively demonstrated the ability of Quartz Blockchain to support seamless information exchange between capital market participants.

 In addition, we are particularly proud of the TCS BaNCS solution that Standard Bank used to connect to Quartz Blockchain.

According to Bruyns,  the innovation enabled the parties complete the pilot in record time.

” The results of this successful technology pilot presents exciting opportunities for Africa to deepen innovation, increase efficiency and drive integration in its capital markets.

Standard Bank will continue to work with TCS to explore ways to develop future-ready digital solutions for all our stakeholders,” Bruyns said.

On the importance of the use of Blockchain Vivekanand, vice president and co-head, financial solutions, TCS explained that it amplifies the value of information sharing networks.

“Each customer on the network represents not just a point of consumption of information, but also the promise of a continued flow of new data and transactions into a shared distributed ledger. This is the power of the BaNCS Network, in line with our Business 4.0 objective of enabling ecosytems.

The BaNCS Network deployed on the Cloud includes ready Quartz Blockchain Solutions which can be used for various scenarios across the financial landscape by TCS BaNCS customers, as proved by CSCS and Standard Bank.”