CLS, the bank-owned currency trading utility, and IBM (NYSE:IBM) have gone live with their blockchain-based payment netting service after more than two years in development.
Investment banking giants Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) are the first companies to use the newly launched CLSNet, with six more participants from North America, Europe and Asia, including Bank of China (Hong Kong), committed to joining in the next few months, according to CLS and IBM.
Ram Komarraju, managing director for technology at CLS, told CoinDesk the system is up and running, saying:
"We have matched and confirmed the first transactions and successfully issued a netting report to the counterparties."Along with the food-tracking blockchain IBM Food Trust launched in October, and the trade finance platform we.trade, which went live in late June, CLSNet is the third blockchain consortium powered by IBM tech to go into production this year.