The Swiss stock exchange wants to be the first to launch a digital exchange. Jos Dijsselhof, the head of the company, is convinced that the Blockchain will help it remove the key risk component.

SIX, the Swiss stock exchange operator, aims to move equity trading onto the Blockchain. The first tests have been set for the second half of the year, CEO Jos Dijsselhof told «Handelszeitung».

The biggest plus of such a solution will be the gain in time. The actual trade of a stock today takes less than a second, Dijsselhof said. But the actual settlement in the back office can take up to two days to complete. It is this lag that Dijsselhof wants to eliminate, because it is a risk for the exchange in case a trading segment defaults.

Pioneering Work

«Once we manage to move trading to a digital exchange, the entire procedure will take seconds only,» said Dijsselhof. This will make the market more efficient, while removing risks from the system, he added.

The Swiss exchange is the first worldwide to undertake the experiment to make the entire infrastructure more efficient using the Blockchain. SIX also wants to create a trading platform for cryto assets.