Northern Trust has been granted two US patents for distributed ledger technology inventions covering a range of fund administration activities.
These include delivering a commercial blockchain solution for the private equity fund administration market in 2017.
Northern Trust has submitted a number of patent applications to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for inventions it developed to support the efficient, secure, and transparent management of lifecycle events within private equity fund administration.
The financial service company’s blockchain development is part of a broader digital strategy for asset servicing, which includes robotic processing, artificial intelligence, and the proactive deployment of emerging technologies.
Pete Cherecwich, president of corporate & institutional services at Northern Trust, commented: “Researching and identifying new ways to leverage emerging technologies to deliver new and innovative solutions to our clients is critical to our collective success.”
He added: “Blockchain technology in particular has the potential to drive major industry-wide improvements and could significantly change how financial transactions are conducted.”
Justin Chapman, global head of market advocacy & innovation research at Northern Trust, said: “We have developed a number of blockchain innovations that may be applied to multiple business activities and product offerings, with private equity fund administration being only one example of many potential use cases.”
Chapman continued: “Our solutions are designed with the intention of increasing value for our clients by promoting asset safety, reducing transactional friction, increasing transparency and driving efficiency in the investment lifecycle.”
