SIA teams up with Wizkey to boost trading of credits on blockchain

By Megha Bhattacharya

Europe-based SIA has signed an agreement with FinTech WizKey with an aim to launch a platform available to banks, funds and financial operators to negotiate credits on blockchain and promote greater liquidity to the benefit of SMEs. According to SIA, the initiative will enable banks, funds and financial operators to securitise and sell credit portfolios.

“The creation of an advanced ecosystem for credit trading represents one of the first initiatives at international level based on blockchain, confirming SIA’s constant focus on the development and implementation of innovative solutions for the financial community. The main objective of this project launched together with Wizkey is to support banks in managing credits, especially non-performing ones, in a standardized and secure manner in line with the indications of European regulators”, said Daniele Savarè, Director of Innovation & Business Solutions at SIA.

SIA stated that each credit portfolio on the platform has its own permanent data room where the history, the documents and all the results of due diligence activities are available and notarized in bid to avoid information asymmetry risks and protect the parties involved in the process.

“The 2008 financial crisis has already shown us how inefficient management of non-performing loans can put the entire country system under stress and can cause serious systemic risks. It is increasingly evident that we need technologically advanced tools to deal with the next wave of NPLs, which is closely linked to the current recession and will manifest itself even more vigorously in the coming years. The partnership with SIA is a key starting point to promote a systemic initiative for all financial operators in the context of a new Italian digital renaissance. Thanks to an exponential improvement of the technology infrastructure, it is already possible to create a transparent, liquid and efficient secondary market for NPLs thus benefiting the entire country system”, commented Marco Pagani, CEO and founder of WizKey.

Recently, open banking platform finleap connect signed an agreement with SIA in a bid to deliver new Open Banking services to European banks, financial institutions, and FinTechs.