- Vanguard Group is testing a blockchain-powered platform that would allow asset managers to trade currencies without using major banks as intermediaries, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
- The currency market handles $6 trillion each day, and is currently dominated by firms like JPMorgan Chase and Citi.
- Vanguard’s platform would skirt the banks’ fees through peer-to-peer trading, and has already handled a few trades, a source told Bloomberg.
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Vanguard Group is testing a blockchain-powered platform for asset managers to trade currencies, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
An entry into the sector from Vanguard could bring long-sought change to the bank-dominated currency market. The investing giant already disrupted the finance world by introducing low-cost index funds to the masses.
The currency market handles $6 trillion a day, according to Bloomberg, and requires banks like JPMorgan Chase and Citi to execute trades.
Asset managers currently rely on banks as intermediaries for currency trades, even after buy-side companies began matching trades on electronic services in the 2000s. The system being tested by Vanguard would sidestep the traditional players and their fees, Bloomberg reported.
The investing giant’s service has been working for two months and has already handled some trades, a source told Bloomberg. The platform uses the same blockchain technology behind bitcoin to match trades, and could cut trade expenses if enough users join the service.
“In theory, it sounds great because you can reduce your costs if you can match directly with someone else who has a countervailing interest,” Campbell Adams, a former Deutsche Bank senior currency trader and the founder of ParFX, told Bloomberg. However, such a platform “will require a critical mass of users” if it wants to bring a discount advantage to the massive sector, he added.
The investment advisor has previously hinted at efforts to compete in peer-to-peer trading. Andy Maack, Vanguard’s global head of foreign exchange trading, told The Trade there’s a “tremendous amount of interest in the potential for disintermediation.”
Peer-to-peer trade matching “is pretty intriguing, especially for the foreign exchange markets which only really started to seriously explore this topic in recent months,” he added in the September interview.
The company didn’t comment further on plans for the platform, but noted its interest in currency hedging and lowering “the cost of investing for all investors.”
“Vanguard is currently piloting a project focused on improving the efficiency and reducing risk of FX hedging,” Vanguard spokesperson Carolyn Wegemann said in a statement to Business Insider. “Given the project is still in the pilot stage, we can’t comment further.”
Vanguard has more than $5 trillion in worldwide assets and is the world’s largest provider of mutual funds. It also provides exchange-traded funds that track major stock indexes.