UBS for months has been working on a digital currency at its laboratory in London. The effort seems to have paid off.
The kudos couldn't be any bigger: three of the world's largest banks have agreed to join the project for a digital currency, which UBS has been developing at its fintech laboratory Level 39 last year.
The project's focus is the so-called Utility Coin, first mentioned in an article by finews.ch in September of 2015.
Deutsche, Santander, BNY, ICAP
Deutsche Bank from Germany, Spain's Santander and BNY Mellon from the U.S. as well as ICAP brokerage have now agreed to join in on the development, the «Financial Times» reported (story behind pay-wall).
The banks hope that the coin will help shift the trade with securities and currencies to the Blockchain technology. The industry expects the change to lead to substantial cost savings and more security.
Out Goes Batlin – in Comes Batlin
The next major step in the development of the project is presenting the currency to the central banks and to start using it by 2018, according to the newspaper report.
Ironically, the breakthrough for Utility Coin comes as its founding father, Alex Batlin, leaves UBS to join BNY Mellon. As the latter has agreed to join the project he helped come about at UBS, Batlin will remain close to the future development.
