The blockchain platform HQLAx, which specializes in the lending of securities, received 14.4 million euros in an investment round.
The blockchain platform HQLAx, which specializes in lending securities between financial institutions, has successfully completed a strategic investment round worth EUR 14.4 million. The company announced this in a press release on January 11th .
Industry giants as partners
The investment round was led by BNY Mellon, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas Securities Services and Citigroup and with the participation of Deutsche Börse Group as a long-term strategic partner.
With the additional capital, HQLAx wants to get closer to its long-term goal and, according to its own statement, support the financial sector “in overcoming fragmented collateral pools in Europe”.
To achieve this, HQLAx wants to make securities lending and security management more efficient with the help of blockchain technology. The HQLAx platform enables financial market participants to “transfer ownership of securities smoothly across different collateral pools at precise times”.
How HQLAx also announced will BNY Mellon, BNP Paribas Securities Services, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs „Connecting to the HQLAx platform in 2021 to the mobility of collateral to improve their customers throughout the securities industry.“
BNY Mellon will join “as both triparty agent and agent Lender, Goldman Sachs as principal, BNP Paribas Securities Services as triparty agent and Citibank as custodian,” the company added.
Stephan Leithner, member of the Board of Management of Deutsche Börse and Chairman of Clearstream, describes the advantages of the HQLAx platform in the following words:
“The entry of such important industry players as shareholders and customers is a great signal. Innovative and future-oriented market infrastructures are essential for flexible and efficient financial markets ”.
Long-term cooperation with Deutsche Börse
Deutsche Börse and HQLAx have been working together since 2018 . The jointly developed blockchain solution for the securities lending market has been in operation since the end of 2019 .